The sources agree that this surname is found principally in Sicily, especially in the provinces of Agrigento and Caltanissetta, with a secondary presence in the area of Turin and, more broadly, across northern and central Italy.

Two distinct etymologies have been proposed. E. Rossoni argues that the surname derives from the social condition of a foundling child abandoned at the municipal loggia — the covered public gallery that served as a civic gathering place — a circumstance attributed to the founding ancestor of the family line.

V. Blunda proposes a different and more historically layered etymology. According to Blunda, the surname has a Germanic root, tracing back to the personal name Laubja, connected to the root laub, meaning foliage, fronds, or leafy branches — the same root that yields modern German Laub and English leaf. From this root developed the Italian word loggia, which originally designated a rustic shelter made of branches serving as an open-air meeting place, and which later gave its name to the open architectural galleries associated with the Italian Renaissance. Blunda notes that as a surname it survives primarily in central and northern Italy.

The two interpretations are not mutually exclusive in linguistic terms: both ultimately point to the word loggia as the immediate source of the surname, differing only in how far back the etymology is traced and in the specific circumstances of its transformation into a surname.