The authors agree that this surname has a toponymic origin, derived from Lipari, the most important island of the Aeolian archipelago, situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. E. De Felice defines it as a Sicilian surname formed both from the place name Lipari —in the province of Messina— and from the demonym liparòto.

F. Miranda adds that the place name goes back to the ancient Greek form Lipara (Λίπάρα), derived from the adjective λίπαρός, with the meaning "fatty, greasy" and, by extension, "shining, rich and fertile". He notes that the surname is of Sicilian and Calabrian origin, found across numerous regions of Italy: besides Sicily —where it is present in every province, with a strong concentration in the Messina, Palermo, Trapani, Catania and Agrigento areas— it also appears in Lombardy, Calabria, Piedmont, Liguria, Lazio, Tuscany, Sardinia, Campania and Emilia-Romagna.

It is further held that from this place name derive related variants and surnames such as Liparese, Liparini, Lipariotto, Liparitano and Liparulo, among others, arisen from dialect differences and from the use of local suffixes proper to southern Italy.