The authors differ both on the geographical origin and on the etymology of this surname. E. Rossoni places it in Sardinia, where it is widely found: in the Cagliari area (Quartu Sant'Elena, San Sperate, Selargius, Monserrato, Capoterra and Assemini, among other localities), in the Sassari area (Alghero), in Ogliastra (Ilbono), in the Medio Campidano (Sardara, Sanluri, San Gavino Monreale), in the Oristano area (Bosa, Uras, Ardauli) and in the Carbonia-Iglesias area (Carbonia, Gonnesa).

As for its origin, Rossoni proposes several hypotheses: it could derive from the Latin villa ("settlement, village"), which in Sardinian yields the forms bidda or idda; from the Latin adverb of place ibi ("there, yonder"), which would generate the variants iba or ibba; or from the Latin demonstrative pronoun illa ("that one"). He notes that in old documents it always appears preceded by de, indicating provenance (de ibba = "from the village"), and that among the signatories of the Pace di Eleonora of 1388 several bearers of the forms Iba/Ibba appear.

V. Blunda, by contrast, proposes a Germanic origin: the surname would derive from the personal name Ibba, a hypocoristic form linked to personal names built on the root ibur or ebur ("boar"), an animal of high symbolic value in ancient Germanic culture. According to Blunda, the consonant doubling -bb- is proper to medieval Italian phonetics as a marker of affective or intensive forms.