E. Rossoni notes that this surname presents two independent clusters of origin: one in the Turin area and another in Trieste. He documents it as early as 1246 among the Trieste nobility. As for the origin, Rossoni proposes several hypotheses: it could originally allude to a joker or a plump person, or derive from the Germanic name Buro/Burilo, or from the Latin Burriolus/Burolus.

Rossoni also mentions the variant Burolo, of extreme rarity, which he considers of Istrian origin —specifically of the Umag area, today in Croatia—. According to this author, that form appears documented from the end of the 18th century as a Romance-Istrian evolution of Burlovich, which in turn would be the Slavicisation of Burlo.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a different etymology for the southern variant of the surname: he derives it from the Greek byrlòs, "mad", and interprets it as a nickname applied to the ancestor for his erratic behaviour or his extravagant ways, which over time became a surname in Sicilian onomastics.