The toponym Caririaçu comes from the Tupi Cariri or Kiriri (quiet, taciturn) and Assú or Açú or (augmentative suffix), a composition that means Caladão.

The lands of the Serra de São Pedro were inhabited by the Kariri, Guari, Indians before the arrival of entries into the Brazilian interior during the 17th century.

The members of the entrances, military and religious, maintained their first contacts with the natives, studied the entire region of the Cariai, catechized the indigenous people and grouped them into villages or missions.

The results of these contacts and discoveries triggered news that the region had gold in abundance and then a real race was unleashed towards the Brazilian sertões, where families from Portugal, dreaming of the riches of unexplored lands and hoping to find the ore , which would lead them to increase their material patrimony, in addition to increasing their personal prestige with the Portuguese court.

The first inhabitants of the mountains may have been José Joaquim de Santana or Miguel Cavalcante Campo, according to the testimony of historian Irineu Nogueira Pinheiro.

The main sources of water are part of the Salgado River basin, being the streams: Damião, do Jenipapeiro, do Jupari, dos Carneiros, Munlugu, Oitícica, Rosário, Samambaia, São Lourenço and many others.

The basis of the local economy is the agriculture of sisal, tree and herbaceous cotton, bananas, sugar cane, corn and beans; livestock: cattle, swine and poultry; and a perfume, soap and candle industry.