The authors agree that the surname derives from the term designating the "abbot" or an equivalent religious dignity.

E. Rossoni derives it from the pre-Renaissance Latin term abbas, abbatis ("abbot, lord"). He notes that the French-influenced area of Piedmont and Liguria gave it the meaning of "lord" or "monsignor", the precursor of modern French monsieur. In Sardinia it also exists as a place name, and on that island the surname could be linked to the Late Latin term abba, itself from the Aramaic abbà ("father"), used today as "dad".

V. Blunda, for the Sicilian variant, derives it from the Byzantine lexicon designating religious dignities. He traces it to the Greek etymon Ábbas ("abbot"), and notes that it reflects the weight of Greek monastic culture in Sicily during the Byzantine period (6th–9th centuries), when the Basilian monasteries scattered across the island formed a focus of linguistic and spiritual influence whose echo remained fixed in numerous southern surnames.