• Paparini is a rare Italian surname, belonging to the broad onomastic group of Papa and derivatives.
• Papari has a core at San Marzano di San Giuseppe (province of Taranto).
• Papara is almost unique in the Cosenza area.
• Paparo has cores in the Naples area (Naples, San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, Volla, Massa di Somma, Cercola, Pollena Trocchia, Ercolano, Sant'Anastasia), in the Catanzaro area (Badolato, Catanzaro, Satriano), in the Crotone area (Scandale, Crotone) and in Sicily (Paternò, Bronte, Catania, Randazzo, in the Catania area).

This group of surnames derives from a dialect alteration of the name or of variants of the Byzantine Greek term papas (priest, father or person of respect in the Byzantine tradition), applied in the medieval onomastics of southern Italy by two routes.

• The first, as a surname of devotional or professional type linked to the Byzantine Orthodox clergy who during the early Middle Ages (7th–12th centuries) had an important presence in the peninsular south and in Sicily.
• The second, as an affectionate or ironic byname applied to an ancestor characterized by his solemn or authoritative bearing.

The form Paparini, with the double diminutive plural suffix -ini, would designate small branches born of the Papari clan.