The authors agree that this surname derives from the medieval personal name Alberto, of Germanic origin, introduced to Italy first by the Lombards and then by the Franks. E. De Felice documents the Latinised Lombard forms —Adelpertus, Alapertus, Alipertus, Altpertus, Alpertus— from the 8th century, and the Frankish forms —Adalbertus, Adelbertus, Albertus— from the 9th century, though established only in the 11th. N. Bergamo agrees with this chronological record and highlights the ancient presence of the surname in Liguria.

As for the etymology, De Felice explains that Alberto is the reduced form of Adalberto, composed of *athala- ("noble, nobility of lineage") and *berhta- ("bright, illustrious, famous"), with the original meaning of "illustrious by nobility". He also notes that the forms Alapertus, Alipertus and Alpertus may have as their first element *ala- ("entirely"), with a superlative function, giving the sense of "entirely illustrious or famous". R. Brondolo takes up precisely this second interpretation in defining the form Alipertus as "entirely illustrious".

F. Miranda adds that the surname arose as a patronymic of the founding ancestor named Alberto, and that in the Middle Ages the name was given to children as an expression of nobility and as an omen. The surname is of pan-Italian distribution, with notable presence in Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Piedmont and Liguria, and also in Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily. De Felice specifies that the maximum frequency of Alberti and Albertazzi occurs in Emilia.

P. Regati records it as a surname typical of the Brigasca area, a border zone between Liguria and present-day southern France. Among the documented variants are Albertini, Albertelli, Albertazzi, Albertoni, Aliberti and Aliberto, among others, with differentiated regional distributions throughout the Italian peninsula.