The authors agree that this surname derives from the medieval name Guala, itself of Germanic origin (Wala), with the sense of "Celtic" or "foreign".

E. Rossoni notes that it is a very infrequent surname, typical of the area between Brescia and Bergamo, in Lombardy. Until the 15th century the given name Guala or Gualenus was still in current use in that region. In the 16th century, an individual named Gualenus Gualeni was given the nickname Gualinus to distinguish him from a cousin of the same name; that nickname later passed to his descendants as the surname Gualini. Rossoni identifies the hill of Solto, in the Bergamo area, as the area of origin.

For its part, Surnames in Italy places the surname in the Sebino area —the district of Lake Iseo, on the boundary between the provinces of Brescia and Bergamo— and classifies it as an anthroponymic surname of a recurring character, likewise derived from the Germanic base Wala-Guala.