E. Rossoni notes that this surname is proper to the Foggia area, specifically to San Severo, and that it would derive from a nickname based on the dialect word irmici, meaning "roof tiles".

F. De Laurentiis proposes, by contrast, a different etymology: he links the surname to the Brescian place name and to the feminine personal name Irma, of Germanic origin, derived from irmin, "great"; in its masculine form, that name corresponds to Irmino or Erminio.

The two hypotheses are hard to reconcile, since they point to different regions and different linguistic bases: the first places it in southern Italy, in the region of Apulia, with a local dialect root; the second links it to the north, in the Brescia area, with a given name of Germanic tradition. It is possible that the surname has independent origins in different regions of Italy.