The authors agree that the surname derives from the medieval name Guibertus, the Latinized form of a Germanic compound made up of the elements wig / viga ("war, battle") and berht / berhta ("bright, shining"), with the general sense of "he who shines in battle" or "illustrious in combat".

E. Rossoni notes that the surname shows distinct areas of presence: one in the Ravenna area and another in the Turin area. The variant Guiberti, almost unique, would appear to be of Piedmontese origin. V. Blunda considers it a Sicilian surname of Germanic root and adds that the spelling with an intercalated -h- is characteristic of northern Italy.

Blunda also recalls the figure of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455), Florentine sculptor and goldsmith, who won in 1401 the celebrated competition for the second door of the Baptistery of Florence against Filippo Brunelleschi, and then devoted almost three decades to the so-called "gates of paradise", which Michelangelo declared worthy of closing the entrance to Eden for their technical and compositional excellence.