A. Bongioanni notes that Lucifero is first and foremost the name of a saint: a bishop of Cagliari of the 4th century, whose feast day is celebrated on 2 May. He warns that the surname is characteristic of southern Italy, and further mentions the form Lucafer, documented in the Franco-Venetan Buovo cited by Rajna in the Rendiconti dei Lincei of 1891, although he considers that this variant has an entirely different etymology.

E. Rossoni records specific areas of presence: Lucifero appears in Rome, in the Catanzaro area and in Sicily, specifically in the Messina area, at Sant'Angelo di Brolo and Piraino. The variant Lucifora is typically Sicilian, with the greatest concentration in the Ragusa area —Modica, Ragusa, Chiaramonte Gulfi, Vittoria and Giarratana— and also in the Catania area, at Adrano and Caltagirone, as well as at Pachino and Syracuse. The form Luciforo is practically unique. Rossoni proposes for all these variants an origin in the Greek compound of lýchnos ("light, lamp") and foreys ("he who carries"), with the meaning "he who bears the light" or "the enlightened one".