The authors agree that this surname derives from a nickname referring to the first bearer of the lineage, linked to some characteristic of the barbagianni —the barn owl—, in particular the fixity of its gaze. It is a very rare surname, with scattered presence in the regions of the Marche and Umbria, the area from which it apparently originates.

F. Miranda broadens the geographical picture and indicates that the surname also appears in Piedmont, Liguria, Lazio, and in Sicily, both in the Catania area —specifically in Bronte— and in the Enna area, in Centuripe. Miranda also adds that, according to the Sabatini-Coletti dictionary, the term barbagianni has in Italian a figurative use with which an inept or grumpy person is designated, which suggests that the nickname could equally have originated in that sense.