E. Rossoni and V. Blunda differ on the origin of the surname.

Rossoni derives it from the medieval name Poma, documented in the Codice Diplomatico della Lombardia Medievale in a deed of 1184 in Pavia. The first documented transformations into a surname include a deed of 1625 in Almenno (Bergamo) and references in the Val Brembana in the second half of the 17th century.

Blunda, on the other hand, for the Sicilian variant derives it from the dialect word pùmu ("apple tree"), which preserves the Sicilian result of the Latin pomum ("fruit" in a generic sense). As a surname it could have originated in a microtoponym applied to a person residing beside an apple tree or engaged in fruit cultivation.