The surname Laurito is a toponymic surname, that is, it derives from the name of a place. It is worth stating without hesitation: it does not refer to a person, a trade or a nickname, but to a specific village in southern Italy.

According to E. Rossoni and E. De Felice, the surname Laurito comes from the place name Laurito, a locality situated in the present-day province of Salerno (Campania), in an area of transition between the Salerno and Cosenza districts (northern Calabria). The name of the place, in turn, derives from the Latin lauretum, which means "place planted with laurels", that is, a spot where laurel trees grew in abundance.

In the medieval and early modern periods it was very common to identify a person by his place of provenance. Thus, someone who left the village of Laurito and settled in another locality might be known as quello di Laurito, a designation that in time became fixed as a hereditary surname: Laurito.