E. Rossoni identifies it as a typically Sardinian surname, present above all in Samugheo and in the Oristano area, in Tonara (Nuoro area), and in Sassari and Cagliari. It could derive from a nickname based on the Logudorese term patta, meaning both “draw or agreement” and “hearth warmth” (the expression essere a patta means “to end in a tie”). He clarifies that the surname has not been found in the medieval Sardinian documents consulted.

V. Blunda proposes instead a Germanic origin for the Sicilian variant, derived from the personal name Badu, tied to the root badu (combat, struggle) in its simple form without a second element. According to this interpretation, the popular association with the Italian patta (belt, band of cloth, pact) would be a crossed etymology, since the common noun has several origins depending on the sense, with no direct relation to the Germanic anthroponym. The consonant doubling -tt- would be characteristic of medieval Italian phonetics for indicating affective or intensive forms of the original name.