The authors agree that the surname derives from place names containing the element Mirabella or Mirabello, present both in the south and in the north of Italy. The most frequently cited reference place names are Mirabella Eclano, in the province of Avellino (Campania), and Mirabella Imbaccari, in the province of Catania (Sicily).

F. Miranda broadens the origin by noting that the surname could also have arisen as an auspicious name that parents gave to their children, with the sense of "may it be a fine view", and links it to the Late Latin Mirabilius or the medieval Mirabellus. For his part, E. De Felice further mentions the toponymic type Mirabello, of broader distribution and sporadic presence in several regions of northern Italy.

As for its geographical distribution, Miranda notes that the surname is native to Sicily, with a notable presence in the Catania, Palermo, Ragusa, Syracuse and Messina areas, but with cores also established in Lazio and in the Naples area, besides a diffusion in Campania, Piedmont, Lombardy, Puglia, Tuscany, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia.