The authors agree that this surname has a Greek origin and is concentrated mainly in Calabria, with a presence also in Sicily. The common root noted is the Greek word skòpelos (σκόπελος), which designates a crag, rock or reef, linked to features of the landscape. P. Durante confirms briefly this Greek etymology from skòpelos.

E. De Felice interprets the surname as formed from the place name Scopelliti, locatable in the Reggio Calabria area, or else, in Sicily, from the demonym in -ita —that is, Scopellita— derived from the place name Scopello, documented in the Trapani area. E. Rossoni distinguishes two independent lines of origin (ceppi): one between the Reggio Calabria and Messina areas, and another in the Agrigento area. Rossoni considers that the surname may derive from a Modern Greek form of the demonym of the place name Scopello (Trapani area), although he judges it more probable that it comes from a nickname originated in the Greek word skopelos, with the sense of "coralline reef."

G. Rohlfs places it in the Greek-Byzantine tradition and specifies that the surname is documented in the cities of Catanzaro, Cosenza and Reggio Calabria, as well as in localities of their provinces —Paola, Rossano, Squillace, Gioiosa Jonica, Taurianova—, besides being very diffused in Sicily. Rohlfs derives it from the Greek Skopelitis, with the meaning of "native of Skòpelos," a place name of Greece, and relates it to the Byzantine presence in southern Italy.

The suffix -iti, of Greek root (-ítēs / -îtai), is characteristic of Calabria and indicates belonging or collective origin —equivalent to "those coming from"—, which places this surname within a set of onomastic forms that preserve traces of the Greek spoken in the region for centuries. Variants are also documented such as Scopellita, with a suffix of Greek-Latin origin frequent in Sicily, and Scopello, a direct toponymic form without a collective suffix, present mainly in the Trapani area.