The authors agree that this surname has a Greek root. F. Miranda notes that it would derive from the Latin Aleus or the Greek Aleos, a name that in Greek mythology corresponds to the son of Apheidas and king of Tegea in Arcadia; Aleos is also the masculine form of Alea, another name of Athena, goddess of wisdom. V. Blunda, for his part, links it to the Greek alèos, related to the semantic field of heat or sunlight in ancient Greek, and maintains that it originally functioned as a personal name transmitted by direct onomastic route within the Byzantine tradition in Sicily.

The surname is typically Sicilian, with documented presence in the areas of Catania, Trapani, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Palermo, Syracuse and Messina, as well as a notable diffusion in the interior area of Enna, where it appears in localities such as Barrafranca, Piazza Armerina and Enna, among others. Miranda also records its extension towards northern Italy, with presence in Lombardy, Piedmont, Lazio, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria.