The authors agree that the surname shows areas of concentration in central and southern Italy, with a presence in the regions of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Calabria and Sicily, as well as in the Sassari area, in Sardinia. F. Miranda adds that its distribution is broad and reaches Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Puglia and Emilia-Romagna as well.

On the origin, the authors put forward several hypotheses. Miranda notes that the surname could derive from a place name of Basilicata, whose root would go back to the Latin name Aurelia; the initial L would be the vestige of an article (L'Oria), so that the surname would indicate belonging to a family originating in that place. E. Rossoni adds as possibilities a derivation from the ancient Gens Loreia or from the Andorran place name Sant Julia de Loria.

Both authors agree that Loria may also be a variant of the surname Lauria, itself linked to a place name —Lauria, in the Potenza area. The transformation of Lauria into Loria is documented in Calabrian parish registers of the 17th century. Rossoni further supplies a lexical detail: in Sardinian, lorìa means "small strap or small ring of leather" and derives from the term loru, which could support an independent origin in Sardinia.