E. Rossoni proposes two hypotheses for this surname. The first connects it with the Gens Fania, the family of the Eastern emperor Zeno. The second posits a possible derivation by aphaeresis of the name Epifania, traditionally attributed to children born on 6 January. Rossoni notes it as peculiar to the Foggia area.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, refers to the Greek Theofània and explains the surname as the result of the shortening of the personal name Teofania, with the loss of the initial element Theo- ("God") and preservation of the remaining segment as an independent form. Blunda documents this same structure of shortening in the surname De Fanis, which he considers a direct parallel. His analysis is based on material from Sicily.

The two proposals are not necessarily mutually exclusive: while Rossoni privileges a connection with the Gens Fania or with the liturgical name Epifania, Blunda orients the origin towards the Greek Theofània, with a phonetic process of aphaeresis well documented in the onomastics of southern Italy. Both lines converge, however, in recognising a nominal substrate of religious or historical base.