The surname presents a reduced and scattered distribution, linked mainly to Liguria and Tuscany. In the regional language of both zones, the term zimino designates a way of cooking fish or molluscs with a sauté of vegetables, chard or spinach, a word that derives from the Arabic samīn ("fatty", "buttery"), incorporated into the Ligurian-Tuscan dialects during the Mediterranean commercial exchanges of the medieval period. The surname would have arisen as a trade denomination applied to a cook or vendor specialised in this dish, or else as a descriptive nickname.

V. Blunda also records, in Sicily, the variant Zimini among the surnames of Greek origin, on the basis of the form Zymnes, which suggests a different etymology for the southern branch, linked to an ancient Hellenic root. The possibility of a toponymic derivation from microtoponyms of the Ligurian Apennines is also noted. Since the surname does not figure as an autonomous entry in the classic Italian onomastic repertoires, the proposed etymology must be considered indicative.