The authors agree that this is a surname proper to Sicily, originating in a nickname or appellative derived from the Sicilian word lumia, which designates a variety of citrus fruit similar to the lemon.

E. De Felice specifies that lumia is the Sicilian name for the lemon in general and, in particular, for a shrub of the rue family (Citrus limonia), as well as for its flowers and fruit. E. Rossoni agrees on the essentials, describing it as a variety of lemon without adding further botanical detail.

V. Blunda broadens the analysis with etymological and historical detail. He notes that the Sicilian term lumia designates the "sweet lemon", a variety of mild flavour, and that its origin is Arabic: laymūn, a fruit introduced into Sicily during the Arab domination of the 9th to 11th centuries. Blunda also proposes that the surname could have arisen from a microtoponym linked to a lemon orchard, or else from the trade of a dealer in that fruit, which adds two distinct paths of formation to the simple nickname hypothesis.