The authors agree that the surname was formed from a Germanic given name composed of the elements haim/heim ("homeland, home") and rich/rikja ("powerful, power, dominion"), meaning "powerful in the homeland" or "rich in his land".

A. Bongioanni notes that the surnames Merighi, Meriggi, Morigi and Moriggia may be in overlap with derivatives of Maurizio. He adds that from the French Aimery derives the Piedmontese Aimerito.

V. Blunda, for the Sicilian variant, derives it from the Germanic compound Haimi Rikja. He notes that the root haimi corresponds to the modern German Heim. He recalls that the name, a variant of Enrico, gave universal fame to Amerigo Vespucci, whose travel letters convinced the geographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 to name the newly discovered continent America.