The authors agree that this surname has a toponymic origin and extends throughout the Italian peninsula. F. Miranda notes that it derives from the Latin turris, "tower", and originally indicated one who lived near a tower or was its owner. E. De Felice specifies that the surname was formed from place names derived from torre and their corresponding demonyms, among which the most common are Torre, Torri and La Torre, present with various determinations throughout Italy, together with forms such as Torraca, Torricella, Torretta, Torriglia, Torresina and Torrita, among others. Miranda, for his part, highlights the presence of the surname in around eight hundred municipalities of different regions, with a special concentration in Sicily, Campania, Liguria, Piedmont, Lazio, Lombardy, Tuscany, Apulia, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Calabria.

De Felice adds that the form Torres, present in southern Italy, is a loan from the Spanish surname of analogous origin, while the scarce Torres of the north-east correspond to the place name Torres in the province of Belluno, and those of Sardinia derive from Porto Torres. The same author notes that the variant Torrisi is very frequent in the Catania area, and that Turrisi is common in Sicily, Calabria and the Salento area —that is, the southernmost zone of the Apulia region, in southern Italy. Other variants have more limited distributions: Torrini and Torrigiani are typical of Tuscany; Torresani, of northern Italy; and Torretta, of Sicily.

E. Rossoni indicates that the variant Torriani is concentrated in the Milan area and has Lombard roots linked to Mendrisio, a locality of the present Swiss canton of Ticino. Rossoni adds that the Torriani family, later settled in Como, provided bishops to the Church and governors to the municipality, was lord of Melzo and Milan, and was aligned with the Guelph party. The variant Torri, according to the same author, is documented mainly in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, with possible specific zones in the Genoa area, the north of Tuscany and Lazio.