The authors agree that this surname belongs to the onomastic group formed by Polli, Pollini, Polloni, Pollone, Pollastri and Polla, all derived from the Latin pullus, a term that designates a young animal and which in current usage alludes to the chicken or rooster in the masculine and to the hen in the feminine.

E. Rossoni and P. Lastrico agree in noting three possible origins of the surname. The main hypothesis links it with an occupational byname applied to a poultry keeper or chicken breeder. A second reading connects it with the figurative sense of pullus as "offspring" or "descendant," used as an affectionate or filiation byname. A third hypothesis relates it to the plant sense of the term —in Italian pollone, "shoot" or "sprout"—, suggesting a byname of agricultural origin.

As to its geographic distribution, the surname is documented mainly in northern Italy: in the Vercelli area (Piedmont), in Trentino-Alto Adige and in the Milan area (Lombardy). There is also a nucleus in the Naples area, in the region of Campania.