'atellan' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'Atellāna (fābula)', where 'Atella' was the name of a town in Campania.

'atellan' changed from the Latin term 'Atellāna fābula' (plural 'Atellanae'), passed through scholarly Latin and early modern references to the genre, and was adopted into English as 'atellan' to denote the specific comic form.

Initially it meant 'of or from Atella' or simply 'pertaining to Atella'; over time it narrowed to denote the specific comic genre known as the Atellan farce.