In the local Calabrian dialect (a variation of Cosentino), the town is called Grimàudu or Grimàuru, and the residents Grimaudisi, although the Italian versions (Grimaldi and Grimaldesi) are today prevalent.

[4] The first settlement in the area may have been a small casale (hamlet) named Santa Caterina, around the year 872, when much of Calabria was experiencing the battles between the Lombards, the Byzantines and the Saracens.

The present-day town may have been founded between 1027 and 1034, in the aftermath of the Norman invasion, when due to natural calamities and pestilence all of the Grimaldesi moved to the slopes of the Santa Lucerna mountains.

[5] During the period of Angevin, Aragonese and Spanish rule of the Kingdom of Naples, Grimaldi found itself in isolation, the main routes from Cosenza to Aiello being along the Savuto river to the south (then navigable).

The most recent wave of migrants, from the post-war years to the early 1970s, saw residents migrate to northern and central Italy, and many immigrated abroad, primarily to the United States, Canada, Germany and Belgium.