The authors agree that the surname is of Greek origin, derived from the adjective áspros, meaning "white" or "grey-haired". P. Durante defines it briefly as a term linked to the concept of "whitener". V. Blunda develops this idea and notes that the term functioned as a nickname applied to the ancestor for his light complexion, his grey hair or some physical feature associated with whiteness, until it became a surname as a family mark transmitted along the male line.

G. Rohlfs provides a historical and geographical perspective: he places the surname in the Greek-Byzantine tradition, with documented presence in the province of Reggio Calabria and in the Neapolitan sphere. Rohlfs also records the form Asprèa as a current surname in Greece, documented in Athens and Thessaloniki, which would reflect the continuity of the Byzantine presence in southern Italy. Blunda, for his part, also places the surname in Sicily, where the Greek form of the adjective would have been preserved with greater fidelity.