F. Miranda notes that the surname derives from the Sicilian dialect term sisca, which designates a bucket of wood, copper or zinc of truncated-conical shape used by shepherds for the milking of milk, according to the Sicilian Vocabulary of Piccitto/Tropea. From this noun, siscaro would designate the maker of such vessels, that is, a trade name.

V. Blunda agrees on the Sicilian dialect origin and on the occupational meaning, although he formulates the etymology from the word siscàru. Blunda specifies that the suffix -àru is characteristic of the trade names formed on the produced object, and adds that the surname could have originated as an occupational nickname applied to the cooper artisan.

As to the geographic distribution, Miranda indicates that the surname is found in around thirty municipalities, in their majority Sicilian, with an occasional presence also in Tuscany, Veneto, Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont. Within Sicily, he locates it exclusively in the provinces of Catania —in the localities of Catania and Aci Catena— and of Enna —in Regalbuto, Agira, Catenanuova and Enna. Blunda, for his part, circumscribes it simply to Sicily without further detail.