The authors agree that the surname has an uncertain origin and propose the same main hypotheses. The first links it to an aphaeretic hypocoristic form of the given name Ugo. The second relates it to a nickname derived from the Greek kòlos ("docked trunk"), itself from the verb koloúo ("to truncate, to mutilate"). A third hypothesis, shared by both, suggests that it could be an altered form of the Sicilian surname Gullo.

E. Rossoni details the geographical distribution within Sicily according to each variant. Gullotti is more typical of the Messina area; Gullotta, of the Catania area; Gullotto appears to be characteristic of Randazzo, also in the Catania area. Gulotta, by contrast, is concentrated in western Sicily: in the Palermo area —with a presence in Corleone—, in the Agrigento area —in Sambuca di Sicilia, Santa Margherita di Belice and Sciacca— and in the Trapani area, in localities such as Campobello di Mazara, Erice and Mazara del Vallo.

F. Miranda broadens the distribution, noting that the surname extends across some 140 localities, mostly Sicilian, with a scattered presence in Lombardy, Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Apulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Calabria. Within Sicily, besides the Catania, Messina, Palermo, Syracuse, Agrigento and Ragusa areas, Miranda records its presence in the Enna area, in localities such as Nicosia, Centuripe, Enna, Catenanuova and Regalbuto.