The authors agree that the surname derives from a nickname referring to physical characteristics of the founding ancestor, compounded of the words occhi ("eyes") and pinti ("painted"), with the general sense of "painted eyes" or striking ones.

E. Rossoni notes that, in the dialect of Calabria, pintu may also mean "pockmarked" or "of bad character", which would open an alternative interpretation not strictly physical. He documents its fixing as a surname at Palermo from the second half of the 15th century, with the notary Antonio Occhipinti, and records in the 16th century an Occhipinti family among those of good economic standing at Comiso, in the Ragusa area. He considers that the form Occhipinto would appear to be proper to the Caltanissetta area.

F. Miranda proposes a specific ethnological hypothesis: the nickname would have arisen to identify the descendants of Normans settled in Sicily, who, unlike the local population of Arab, Greek and Spanish origin, had light eyes —blue or green— and were for that reason called occhi pinti. He notes that the surname is concentrated mainly in Sicily, with a notable presence in the Syracuse, Ragusa, Catania, Trapani, Palermo and Caltanissetta areas.