F. Miranda notes that the surname derives from the Latin principatus, in turn derived from princeps, and designates both the government exercised by a prince and the territory subject to his jurisdiction. Miranda also adds a religious sense: the Principalities are the angels that make up the first choir of the third celestial hierarchy.

V. Blunda describes it as a surname of Sicilian and dialect origin, from the word principàtu, with the meaning of "seigneurial domain, a prince's estate." According to Blunda, the noun designates the fief belonging to the titled aristocracy in the island tradition, and as a surname it could have originated in a microtoponym applied to a person residing in the lands of a principality.

As to its geographic distribution, Miranda indicates that the surname is diffused mainly in Sicily, where it appears in almost all the provinces, with a greater presence in the Agrigento, Catania, Messina, Palermo and Syracuse areas. He also notes a presence in the Enna area, as well as smaller groups in Calabria, Lombardy, Lazio, Campania, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.