E. Rossoni distinguishes two etymologies according to the region. In southern Italy, the surname would derive from the Greek term polis, which means "city," and would indicate the condition of citizen; in many cases it would also point to provenance from Byzantium, the city par excellence. In the centre-north, on the other hand, it could derive from nicknames linked to the archaic word polito, with the sense of "polished" or "clean." Rossoni adds that, in both regions, the surname may also come from the abbreviated form of the name Hippolytus.

F. Miranda agrees with this double etymology and broadens the sense of the Greek term: polites designated the citizen as a "free, cultured person with the right to vote." Miranda further specifies that the connection with the name Hippolytus would operate through a process of aphaeresis, that is, the suppression of the initial syllable. He notes that the surname appears in Lombardy, Apulia, Lazio, Sicily, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Piedmont, with a notable presence in Sicily, especially in the Catania area and in the provinces of Syracuse, Palermo, Trapani and Messina.

G. Rohlfs reinforces the Greek-Byzantine origin and supplies geographic precision: he documents the surname in Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, as well as in the province of Catanzaro —specifically in Squillace—, besides noting its presence in the Neapolitan, Sicilian and Salento areas —the southernmost zone of the region of Apulia. Rohlfs highlights that the form Politis still survives today in Greece as a surname, and links this surname with the lexical family of Politano.

P. Durante confirms the Greek origin of the surname, identifying its base in the term polites, "citizen," without adding information beyond that of the previous authors.