F. De Laurentiis and P. Canè agree that the surname is a demonym that indicates provenance from the region of Romagna.

De Laurentiis specifies that it is diffused throughout Italy, with a special frequency in Emilia and Tuscany. It was formed from the name of the historical and modern region of Romagna and from its patronymic Romagnolo ("inhabitant, native of Romagna"). He adds that Romagna derives from the medieval Latin Romania(m), the term with which the Lombards designated the Italian territories that remained under the dominion of the Eastern Roman Empire, later restricted —through a process not yet clarified— to the Exarchate of Ravenna.

One onomastic source defines it as an ethnic surname and notes that it is frequent in the border areas between Liguria, Emilia and Piedmont.

Canè classifies it simply among the demonyms, as "native of Romagna."