E. De Felice notes that this is a surname frequent in the Naples area, derived from the place name Arpaia, a locality in the province of Benevento. E. Rossoni agrees on the toponymic origin, but adds an alternative hypothesis: the surname could derive from an alteration of the ancient Greek term àrpax, a tool used by barrel-makers, which would suggest that the founding ancestors were engaged in that trade.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a different etymology for the Sicilian variant of the surname: he derives it from the Greek arpacs, with the sense of "harpoon" or pointed hook, an instrument linked to fishing. In this case, the surname would have originally functioned as a nickname referring to the trade or to some feature of the ancestor, later becoming a surname through family transmission.

Taken together, the surname presents two distinct etymological traditions according to the region: one of toponymic base, rooted in the Naples area and linked to the locality of Arpaia, and another of Greek root, peculiar to Sicily.