E. Rossoni proposes two possible etymologies for this surname. The first links it to the Arabic term barbariyah, which designated Barbary (the land of the Berbers in North Africa), and to its medieval derivative Barbaria. The second points to a Late Latin name, Barbaria, documented in medieval hagiographic texts. Rossoni notes presence of the surname in the Salerno area —in localities such as Pagani— and in Sicily, especially in the Palermo area, including Cefalà Diana.

V. Blunda proposes instead a Greek etymology: it derives from Barberìa, a word that designated the barber's shop as a place or trade. According to Blunda, the surname would have originally functioned as a trade nickname applied to an ancestor engaged in that work, later becoming a surname within Sicilian onomastics.

The three etymologies —Arabic, Late Latin and Greek— converge in pointing towards southern Italy as the main area of rooting, in particular Sicily and the Salerno area, without the authors reaching a consensus on the most likely origin.