E. Rossoni proposes that the surname would derive from the homonymous Greek surname or from the Greek term kontós ("short"), applied as a nickname to the founder of the lineage —named Leo (Leone)— to indicate his short stature. He considers it typical of Calabria, especially of Rosarno, in the Reggio Calabria area.

G. Rohlfs agrees on the Greek-Byzantine origin and on the semantic interpretation, and specifies the Greek form as Kondoléon, a compound of kondòs ("short, of low stature") and the name Leo. He notes that in Greece the form Kondoléon survives as a surname, which reinforces the common root. Geographically, he documents it both in the province of Catanzaro —in localities such as Polìa and Mileto— and in the province of Reggio Calabria.

V. Blunda records the surname in Sicily and presents it from the Greek form Condòlèos, which he translates as "Leo the short". He describes its structure as a compound of the prefix condo- ("low, short") with the personal name Leo, arisen originally as a nickname applied to an ancestor. Blunda frames it within a series of Sicilian surnames with the same prefix, such as Condifòdero, Condoluci and Condonato.

As a whole, the three authors agree that the surname is of Greek origin and refers to a descriptive nickname of short stature combined with the name Leo. The differences lie in the location: Rossoni and Rohlfs place it in Calabria, while Blunda documents it in Sicily, which suggests that the surname has independent origins in different regions of Italy.