The authors agree that the surname refers to a medieval base, although they differ as to its ultimate origin. E. Rossoni notes that it may derive from the medieval personal name Gallone, documented from the 8th century in the expression in honorem Dei et sancti Galloni, with an early transformation into a surname attested in Pisa in 1209 with a certain Guido Gallone. He also considers possible links with the Gaulish gentilic or with place names such as Gallo (in the province of Ferrara), Gallo Bolognese (in the province of Bologna) and Gallone (in the Bergamo area), this last mentioned in the Codice Diplomatico della Lombardia Medioevale in a document of 1040.

F. Miranda starts from the medieval name Gallus, a byname that alluded to the bird or to the Gaulish ethnic origin, and adds among the motivating place names Specchia Gallone, a frazione of Minervino di Lecce, and Gallo, a frazione of Comiziano, in the province of Naples.

V. Blunda proposes, on the other hand, a Germanic origin: the personal name Wahlone, an augmentative form linked to the root walh, which meant "foreigner, Celt or Romance-speaker". He also warns that the popular association with the Italian gallone —in the sense of a military stripe or ornamental ribbon— constitutes a false etymology, since that term entered Italian late from the French galon, by way of the modern military lexicon.

As for its distribution, Rossoni places specific zones of the surname in Lazio, in Puglia and in the Catania area, and notes that the variant Galloni seems peculiar to Emilia-Romagna, with presence also in Lombardy. Miranda broadens this panorama and indicates presence in Puglia —especially in the Brindisi, Bari and Taranto areas—, in Piedmont, in Lazio, in Lombardy, in Campania, in Sicily, in Liguria, in Emilia-Romagna and in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.