E. De Felice and E. Rossoni agree that the surname derives from a nickname linked to tall stature, formed from the Greek adjective makrìs, which in modern Greek means "long, tall". De Felice specifies that the base form is macrì, taken from the Greek of Calabria (Grico), that is, the variety of modern Greek spoken in that region, and documents the nickname as early as the late Middle Ages in areas of Greek tradition: in parchments written in Greek characters a "Leo... son of Macrì" appears. G. Rohlfs agrees on the Greco-Byzantine origin and on the etymon Makrìs with the sense of "the tall one", and notes that the surname is present throughout Calabria. Rohlfs adds that the unaccented form, Macri, corresponds to a loss of the written accent that is observed in Argentina.

Rossoni specifies that Macri is typically Calabrian, with scattered areas also in that of Naples and in that of Taranto, while Magrì shows scattered areas in that of Catania and in Puglia. De Felice, for his part, notes that the pronunciation Màcri and the variant Magrì are due to a crossing with the Italian surname type Magri. Rossoni adds that, for the non-southern areas, Macri without the accent may in some cases be a variant of Magri rather than a direct derivative from the Greek. Both authors recognize a possible Greco-Albanian provenance alongside the properly Greek one, and Rossoni further mentions that they could derive from the Latin cognomen Macrus.

P. Durante agrees briefly with the foregoing in indicating that the surname is of Greek origin and goes back to the adjective makròs, "long". Surnames in Italy records the same Greco-Latin roots and further notes that a possible connection has been proposed with the Arabic term makrī, with the sense of "wise" or "shrewd", a hypothesis that does not appear in the other sources consulted.