The authors agree that this is a surname of toponymic origin. E. Rossoni notes that it derives from the place name Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, a locality in the Messina area, in Sicily.

F. Miranda broadens this perspective and indicates that the surname could also have originated from the name of the Spanish city of Barcelona —the ancient Barcino, which according to legend was founded in the 3rd century BC by Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal— or from the Sicilian locality of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. On the latter, Miranda gathers two traditions: one that attributes the name to a woman called Graziosa Barsalona, and another that holds that Iberian sailors of the 16th century found in that area a notable resemblance to the territory of the Catalan city.

As for its distribution, Miranda indicates that the surname is present in Sicily —where its main cluster is concentrated, especially in the Palermo, Catania, Messina, Enna and Agrigento areas—, and also in Piedmont, Calabria, Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Liguria. Rossoni adds presence in the Crotone area.