E. De Felice notes that this surname was formed from a nickname or trade name derived from the term sémola (in southern forms sémmola, and Sardinian sìmbula), which designates the semolina of wheat or other cereals, but also flour, bran and, in a figurative sense, the freckles of the face and body. De Felice considers that it was precisely this last meaning that probably motivated the original nickname. Geographically, he places it sporadically in northern Italy under the form Semola, with a predominant presence in the region of Campania —especially in the Naples area— as Semmola, and in Sardinia with variants beginning in Si-.

E. Rossoni considers it typical of Casarano, in the province of Lecce, and proposes that the original nickname could have been linked to the trade of cereal or flour merchant, which connects with the material meanings of the etymon noted by De Felice, although from a functional and not metaphorical perspective.