'Ascanius' originates from Latin, specifically the Roman personal name 'Ascanius', though the exact original root is uncertain and may trace to an older Italic or Etruscan source.

'Ascanius' appears in classical Latin (notably in Virgil's Aeneid) as 'Ascanius' and was carried into later European languages and scholarship largely unchanged, becoming the modern English proper name 'Ascanius'.

Initially it referred specifically to the mythological figure Ascanius; over time the word has remained a proper name referring to that legendary person.