E. De Felice notes that this surname derives from the place name Sora —a town in the province of Frosinone— and from its ethnic name sorano. He considers it typical of central-southern Italy and also documents it in Jewish settings.

E. Rossoni broadens the picture with a more detailed regional perspective. He identifies an area of the surname in Lombardy, especially in the Brescia area, which could derive from the place name Sora found both in the Lecco area and in the Como area. However, Rossoni considers it more likely that this Lombard variant comes from the dialectal expression de sora ("from above"), contrasted with de sota ("from below"), a geographical distinction very common in the villages of that region. For its part, the presence of the surname in Lazio and in the Naples area would respond, according to this author, to the same toponymic root noted by De Felice: the city of Sora, in the Frosinone area.

Taken together, the surname presents multiple independent lines of origin (ceppi), arisen in different regions without a direct relation between them.