The authors agree that this surname derives from the locality of Viganò, in the Brianza, region of Lombardy. The place name refers to the Latin vicanorum, the genitive plural of vicanus ("inhabitant of the vicus"), that is, "of the inhabitants of the village", a form that designated the medieval rural community, with roots already present in Roman and pre-Roman times.

R. Brondolo specifies that Vicanorum is a truncation of the patronymic genitive plural of vicanus, in turn derived from vicus, a Latin term with the sense of "relating to the village". He notes that other truncations of the same type are the surnames Romanò and Amadò, which places Viganò within a broader morphological pattern in the formation of surnames of this zone. Brondolo also extends the presence of the surname to the canton of Ticino, in Switzerland, bordering Lombardy.