G. Rohlfs identifies this surname as of Greek-Byzantine origin, documented in the province of Catanzaro —specifically in Tropea— and in the province of Reggio Calabria, in the localities of Mammola and Siderno. It derives from the Greek Kalaphatis, which designated the caulker, that is, the worker who sealed the joints of boats. In the Neapolitan and Sicilian sphere it appears under the form Calafato. With the patronymic ending -oni it gave rise to the area called Calafàtoni, in the Joppolo area, in the province of Catanzaro.

P. Durante proposes a different etymology, also of Greek root, although without specifying the documented form of the surname: he suggests that it could derive from bella joined to phatis ("word") or to khaite ("head of hair"). This interpretation, however, does not have the philological support offered by Rohlfs's proposal, and should be taken with reservations.