The authors agree that this surname derives from the Lombard name Gambara, cited by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum. A. Bongioanni notes it as possibly the most illustrious of the Lombard names and holds that it is plausible to attribute to it also the surnames Gamba, Gambetta and Gambini, among others. For his part, E. Rossoni cites textually the passage of Paul the Deacon, which presents Gambara as the mother of two Lombard chieftains, described as a woman of keen wit and prudent counsel.

Both authors note that the surname may likewise derive from place names or from nicknames linked to the word gambero (river crayfish), a term that in turn goes back to the Latin gambarus. Rossoni adds that related forms such as Gambari and Gambarini, peculiar to Emilia-Romagna, refer to place names such as Gamberi (Forlì), Gambaro (Piacenza area) and Gambara (Brescia area). The same author records an early documentation of the surname in 1050, in Pralboino, Brescia area, with a certain Alghisio Gambara.

Bongioanni enumerates a series of place names derived from the same trunk, almost all in northern Italy: Gambara (Brescia and Verona areas), Gambarana (Piacenza area), Gambarello (Cuneo area), Gambaretti and Gambugliano (Vicenza area), Gambellara (Rovigo area), Gambelloro (Ravenna area), Gambolò (Mortara), Gamboloita (Milan area) and Gambulaga (Ferrara area). The southern exception is Gambarella, in the Catanzaro area.