The authors agree that Spadafora and Spatafora are two forms of the same surname. E. De Felice notes that both derive from the nickname and later name Spadafora or Spatafora, formed with spada or spata —that is, "sword"— and fora, the Sicilian form of "out", with the sense of "drawn sword". For their part, F. Miranda and E. Rossoni propose a Greek etymology: the term σπάθοφορος (spathophoros), meaning "the one who bears the sword". P. Durante agrees with this Greek root —spatharios, "sword-bearer"— and adds that it was also an honorific title.

All the authors link the surname to a noble lineage of Greek origin. Rossoni specifies that the founding ancestor of that lineage would have been Basilio Spadafora, captain of the guard of the Byzantine emperor Isaac Komnenos, who became exarch in Sicily in 1058, and that the first records as feudatories date from 1296, when Baron Damiano Spadafora obtained the fief of Randazzo in the Catania area. De Felice, for his part, points out that the great Sicilian feudal family of the Spadafora gave its name in the 18th century to the municipality of Spadafora, in the province of Messina, the centre of their principality, and that it is already documented in the early 13th century. Miranda and Rossoni agree that this place name became fixed in 1459; Rossoni adds that, in some cases, the surname could derive directly from the place name and not the other way round.

As for geographical distribution, Rossoni indicates that Spadafora is typical of the Strait of Messina area, with a presence in the Cosenza area and secondary areas in Piedmont, while Spatafora is the Sicilian form, concentrated in the Palermo and Trapani areas, with a presence also in the Catania area. Miranda broadens this picture: he notes that the surname is spread across some 240 Italian comuni, with its main nucleus in the Strait of Messina area —covering Calabria and Sicily— and a lesser presence in Lombardy, Piedmont, Lazio, Campania, Liguria, Tuscany and Apulia. In Sicily, he mentions specific localities in the provinces of Palermo, Messina, Catania and Trapani, as well as a presence in the Enna area.