The authors agree that Bertolone is a Sicilian surname formed on an augmentative of the dialectal word vertula or bertula ("saddlebag"), with the meaning of "large saddlebag".

G. P. Holmes presents it as an augmentative of the Sicilian bertula ("saddlebag"), therefore "large saddlebag". In a figurative sense, he associates it with the idea of "fat man".

V. Blunda describes it as a Sicilian surname of dialectal origin, formed on an augmentative of an object. It comes from the dialectal word vertulùni, "large saddlebag". As a surname it may have originated in the trade of the maker or seller of large saddlebags destined for the transport of bulky goods, or as a nickname applied to a robust and bulky person, in a bodily metaphor. He recalls that the augmentative suffix -ùni is characteristic of Sicilian and forms lexical pairs with the diminutives in -ìnu, as in this case with Bertolino.