The authors differ both on the origin and on the area of distribution of this surname. E. Rossoni considers it derived from the ancient Roman Gens Spuria or from the Latin name Spurius, documented in Rome in the republican period. He notes that the related forms —Spuri, Spurio and Spuria— appear in different zones of central Italy: Rome, Civitavecchia, the Rieti area, the Ancona area, the Viterbo area and the Ancona area, while Spuria is very rare.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, offers a different reading centred on Sicily. According to this author, the surname comes from the Sicilian dialectal word spurìa, meaning "sowing furrow", that is, the line opened in the earth to deposit the seed. Blunda warns that the popular interpretation associating it with the Italian spuria —"illegitimate"— is a false etymology, and proposes that as a surname it could have originated in a microtoponym applied to a person linked to the cultivation of the land.