The authors propose different origins for the surname Butto, linked to different regions.

E. Rossoni describes it as a very rare surname, specific to the Pozzuoli area, in the Naples area.

V. Blunda presents it as a Sicilian surname of Germanic root, derived from the compound Bot Wald, meaning "messenger of power" or "herald of the lord", formed from bot ("messenger, herald") and wald ("power, government, command"). The final oxytone stress in -ò is characteristic of the Sicilian dialect and reflects the preservation of old stressed endings, lost in other Italian varieties. As a surname it is preserved especially in eastern Sicily and in areas of the Mezzogiorno (that is, southern Italy), where the Lombard anthroponymy arrived through continental medieval repopulation.