The authors agree that this surname is proper to southern Sardinia. It could derive from the Sardinian word olla, with the meaning "pot" or "cooking pot", or else from the aphaeresis —loss of the initial syllable— of the name of the Parteolla area, a historical region of south-eastern Sardinia corresponding to the ancient curatoria of Dolia. In Sardinia, a curatoria was a group of villages headed by an official called a curadore.

E. Rossoni adds that the Latin term olla designates a pot or pan, and that some linguists derive it from dolium ("barrel") or from an Indo-European root ukha with the sense of "cooking pot". Rossoni also notes that the Parteolla area comprises the municipalities of Dolianova, Barrali, Donori, Serdiana, Settimo San Pietro and Soleminis. In the medieval documents, among the signatories of the Pace di Eleonora of 1388, the surname appears recorded as Ogla: Ogla (de) Arsòco, Ogla (de) Assay, Ogla (de) Gantino and Ogla (de) Petro.

F. Miranda adds that the variant Ollà shares the same origin, and specifies that the surname is also present in Sicily, where it is documented in the Messina area —in localities such as Nizza di Sicilia and Capo d'Orlando— and in the Enna area, in localities such as Agira, Catenanuova and Centuripe.