E. Rossoni and V. Blunda differ on the origin of the surname.

Rossoni suggests that it is possibly a dialectal augmentative form derived from a modification of the name Álvaro, which reached Sicily with the Aragonese.

Blunda, on the other hand, for the Sicilian variant derives it from the Germanic compound Alfi Varone ("great elf" or "augmentative elf"), formed from alfi ("elf", a supernatural creature of Norse mythology) and the augmentative suffix -one. He notes that elves represented, in the Germanic cosmogony, luminous beings associated with wisdom and fertility. He adds that the Italianisation of the anthroponym preserves the original root accompanied by the Romance morphological suffix.