The authors agree that the surname goes back to an ancestor connected with a wood: whether because he lived nearby, because he came from a wooded area or because he worked in the hills. The central element is the term bosco ("wood"), of Germanic origin (busk), preceded by the Sicilian article lo.

E. Rossoni notes that the surname appears in two distinct areas. The first, in southern Italy, covers localities in the province of Salerno —Sala Consilina and Battipaglia— and in the province of Potenza —Roccanova, Sant'Arcangelo and Montemurro. The second, more substantial, is concentrated in Sicily: in Altavilla Milicia, Palermo and Monreale, within the province of Palermo, and in Raffadali and Licata, in the province of Agrigento. Rossoni proposes that the surname would derive from a nickname identifying the ancestor as "the one from the wood".

It is held to be a surname of a toponymic or provenance character, formed by the Sicilian article lo and the noun bosco. Since the surname does not appear as an autonomous entry in the classic Italian onomastic repertories, the etymology proposed should be regarded as indicative only.