The authors agree that this surname derives from the place name Palermo, capital of Sicily. E. De Felice notes that the surname is frequent in Sicily and in southern Italy, while the variant form Palermi is rare and sporadic in the centre-north of the country.

F. Miranda supplies the historical trajectory of the place name: the Phoenicians called the city Zyz, evoking the profile of a flower formed by two rivers; the Greeks named it Panormus, which means "all-port", for those same rivers created a great natural mooring. The Arabic name was Balam and the Norman one Balermus, until it derived into Palermo. Miranda adds that the surname is widely distributed throughout Italy, with a presence in Lombardy, Campania, Puglia, Lazio, Piedmont, Basilicata and Tuscany, besides Sicily, where it is documented in the Trapani, Catania, Agrigento and Palermo areas, as well as in various municipalities of the Enna area.

G. P. Holmes agrees on the toponymic origin and stresses that the name of the city has a Greek root.