The authors agree that the surname has two main hypotheses of origin. The first links it to the Arabic faraj (also farağ, farag or farah), meaning "joy", "consolation" or "happy"; this interpretation is supported by the linguist G. B. Pellegrini and mentioned also by Rohlfs and Caracausi. The second hypothesis relates it to Greek, although the authors differ on the exact etymon: E. Rossoni links it to the Greek charaki (χαράκι), with the sense of "incision", while F. Miranda proposes the Modern Greek faràkion, a diminutive of fàros ("lighthouse"), or a variant of the Modern Greek faràkos.

Miranda also mentions other possibilities: that the surname derives from the place name Valle Farace, near Castroreale, in the province of Messina, or that it comes from the apocope of the dialectal term faracicu, a word used in Sicilian to designate the tuna-trap worker, according to the Sicilian Dictionary of Mortillaro.

It is a surname of marked Sicilian rooting, present in all the provinces of the island. Miranda notes a greater concentration in the Palermo, Messina, Syracuse, Catania, Trapani areas and in the Enna area. Outside Sicily, it is also recorded in Piedmont, Lombardy, Lazio, Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.