E. Rossoni derives the surname from the late-medieval name Pendolus, documented in a deed of the end of the 14th century in Cremona, where one of the parties is a certain Pendolus quondam Degoldo de Ganasalibus, of Fontanella in the Cremona area. It also appears among the families of Albanian origin registered in 1508 at Alife (Caserta), where a certain Georgico Pendola dicto greco figures.

V. Blunda proposes instead, for the Sicilian variant, a dialectal origin from the word pinnula, with the meaning of "pendant, earring," which preserves the original value of the Latin root pendere. As a surname it could have originated in a nickname given to a person who wore a conspicuous pendant or had a physical feature comparable to something that hangs.