E. Rossoni proposes that the surname would derive from a nickname related to the word fava (broad bean), although he also notes the possibility that it comes from a place name, such as Punta Favaloro in Lampedusa. Rossoni places its presence specifically in the Palermo and Messina areas and in the Aeolian Islands, and documents its appearance in Lipari from the first half of the 16th century.

V. Blunda offers a more detailed explanation of Sicilian dialectal root. According to Blunda, the surname comes from the dialectal word favaloru, which designates the itinerant seller of broad beans —a dry pulse fundamental in Sicilian popular cuisine, the base of preparations such as the maccu di fave— but which also adopted the mocking sense of "sponger", by the negative perception that urban life had of these itinerant merchants. The surname could have originated both in the trade itself and in the pejorative nickname derived from it. Blunda also groups it together with Favaro, Favata and Favella within the family of surnames linked to the term fava.