The authors agree that this surname originates in the Greek term ἐπίσκοπος, which designates the bishop within the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and that its use as a surname comes from a nickname or title linked to that religious office.

E. De Felice notes that the surname was formed from a nickname or title of dignity, both religious and civil, and that it continues, with a learned or semi-learned tradition, the Latin episcopus and the Greek episkopos, meaning "watchman, supervisor, head of a Christian community". He also indicates that the form with aphaeresis of the initial vowel, Piscopo, is documented already in the 12th century in Bari, where it appears as Piscopus and Pisco.

G. Rohlfs underlines the Greek-Byzantine origin of the surname and specifies its geographical distribution in southern Italy: he locates it in the southernmost zone of the region of Puglia, in localities of the province of Lecce —Corigliano, Cutrofiano, Poggiardo— and of the province of Taranto, in Martina, as well as in Naples. He considers it the full form of the surname Pìscopo and links it expressly with the presence of the Byzantine religious hierarchy in the south of the Italian peninsula.

V. Blunda, who analyses it from the Sicilian sphere, agrees on the Greek-Byzantine origin and on the meaning linked to the ecclesiastical office of bishop.