The authors agree that the surname is typical of eastern Sicily, with a notable presence in the Messina area —including localities such as Patti, Montalbano Elicona, Basicò and Tripi— and in the Catania area.

F. Miranda adds that the surname extends across some seventy scattered localities in several regions of Italy: Sicily, Piedmont, Lombardy, Lazio, Liguria, Tuscany, Veneto, Campania, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Sardinia. Within Sicily, he notes a presence also in the provinces of Palermo, Syracuse and Enna, in localities such as Agira, Assoro, Catenanuova, Centuripe and Piazza Armerina.

As to the origin, the authors agree that it is an ethnic form of Greek root that identified populations coming from Pellaro, a locality now integrated as a district of Reggio Calabria, in the region of Calabria, considered the probable place of origin of the first bearers. Miranda further specifies that the place name Pellaro is etymologically linked with the notion of "hide tanner," the sense from which the name of that locality would derive.