E. Rossoni proposes two hypotheses on the origin of this surname. The first links it with a dialectal nickname based on the archaic term stabelir ("to plaster, to render walls"), which would have alluded to the trade of bricklayer of the family's founder. The second suggests that this founder could have been native of Stabello, a locality in the Bergamo area. Rossoni places the presence of this surname in the Ferrara area and in the Bologna area.

F. De Laurentiis proposes a different origin: he considers that the base of the surname is the already old name Stabile, a continuation of the late-Latin personal name Stabilis, typical of Christian settings, meaning "firm, constant, persevering (in the faith)".