The authors agree that this surname derives from the medieval name conte, which in turn comes from the Latin comes (plural comites), a term that originally designated the one who accompanied another —from cum-eo, "I go with"— and that later came to denote a high official in the service of the emperor. In the Middle Ages, the term evolved to designate the dignitary invested by the king or the emperor with powers over a county, finally becoming a noble title.

F. Miranda and E. Rossoni note that the surname could have originated both from the medieval given name Conte and from nicknames attributed to those who were in the service of a count, depended on him, or received that byname for behaviours, physical resemblance or in an ironic manner. F. De Laurentiis adds that in the Middle Ages the term also took on the sense of autonomous and sovereign lord of a county or territory, before being reduced definitively to a noble title. A. Bongioanni notes that this surname shares its origin with Buonconte.

Miranda specifies that conte reached Spanish as "conde" through the Gallicism Comte, and that Contino, in the sense of "son of the count", was a more current form than the diminutive Conticello. As for the geographical distribution, Conte and Conti are spread throughout Italy. Rossoni indicates a predominance in the centre-north, Sicily and Sardinia; Contin is peculiar to the Veneto and to Friuli, especially to the Padua area; Contini is very well represented in Sardinia; Contino has its main zone in Sicily, with presence also in the Salento, the Foggia area, Campania and Lazio; Lo Conte is concentrated in Ariano Irpino (Avellino area), with secondary presences in Rome, the Foggia area and Mussomeli (Caltanissetta area); and Loconte is typical of Andria, in the Bari area.