The surname Auletta is interpreted, according to the main scholars, from a clearly toponymic origin. E. Rossoni notes that it derives directly from the name of the locality of Auletta, in the Salerno area, in Campania. In this sense, the surname would have arisen to identify people originating from that place or linked to it, following a mechanism very frequent in the formation of Italian surnames, especially in the south.

For his part, F. De Laurentiis broadens this interpretation, indicating that the base of the surname is related to place names derived from the term aula, in the sense of "small building with few rooms" (piccola aula). This suggests that, besides referring to a specific place, the name Auletta could have originally had a descriptive value of the landscape or the type of settlement, before becoming fixed as a place name and, subsequently, as a surname.