The authors differ on the origin of this surname. E. Rossoni links it to the Gens Gabinia, a Roman stock that gave rise to the nomen Gabinius or Gabinus, although he considers equally possible its derivation from the ancient city of Lazio called Gabii, destroyed by Hannibal and located about twenty kilometres from Rome. For his part, V. Blunda proposes for the Sicilian variant a Germanic origin, derived from the personal name Gabo, a hypocoristic form linked to the root gab ("gift, present, offering"). Blunda notes that in ancient Germanic culture the exchange of gifts had juridical value: the delivery of objects of value sealed pacts, alliances and oaths, structuring the relations between lineages.

As for the geographical distribution, Rossoni indicates that the surname is extremely rare and appears in a scattered way in the centre and north of Italy, as well as in Campania. The variant Gabino presents small zones of presence in Liguria, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in Campania. Blunda, on the other hand, places it in Sicily and suggests that it would have arrived there through medieval migrations from the Alpine zones of northern Italy.