The sources differ as to the origin of this surname. G. Rohlfs considers it of Greek-Byzantine origin and documents its presence in Taranto. He notes that in Greece the form Phabatàs survives, formerly Phàbatos, and interprets it as a reflection of the Byzantine presence in southern Italy.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a Sicilian origin of a dialectal and toponymic character. He derives it from the dialectal word favàta, which designated the field cultivated with broad beans —specifically Vicia faba—, a habitual rotation in the traditional agriculture of Sicily by the capacity of this legume to fix nitrogen in the soil before the sowing of wheat. As a surname, it would have arisen from a minor place name referring to a dwelling situated beside one of these fields.

Both hypotheses are independent of each other and are not easily reconcilable: one refers to the Greek heritage in southern Italy, and the other to Sicilian agrarian nomenclature. The surname therefore presents possible independent clusters of origin according to each interpretative tradition.