The authors agree that this surname derives from a nickname of Greek origin that alluded to a physical characteristic of the founding ancestor of the lineage, meaning "of short foot".

V. Blunda specifies that the form comes from the Greek condopòdaros, a compound of the prefix condo-, "short", with podaros, "foot", and frames it within a series of compounds with the same initial element recorded in Sicily.

E. Rossoni notes that both Condipodaro and the variant Condipodero are surnames typical of the Messina area, in Sicily. Condipodaro, of very scarce presence, is located specifically in Acquedolci, while Condipodero has its zone of concentration in Brolo.