The authors agree that Maier is a loan from the German surname Meyer, Meier or Mayer, derived from the Latin maior, with the sense of "steward of an agricultural estate" or, in former times, "mayor".

E. De Felice notes that the surname is also frequent among Ashkenazi Jews, in which case it represents the transposition, by phonetic approximation, of the Hebrew name Meir —from Hebrew and Judaeo-Aramaic me'ir, derived from 'ur ("to shine"), with the sense of "the enlightened one")— into the German surname Meyer. He places its presence mainly in Veneto and Trieste, with sporadic appearances in central Italy and in Campania.

E. Rossoni specifies the geographical distribution of the different variants: Maier is typical of the province of Bolzano and of Trieste; Majer is concentrated in Venice and Trieste; Meyr is proper to Veneto; and Meier appears in isolated fashion in northern Italy. Rossoni also supplies a documentary testimony of possible Hebrew origin: in the first half of the 15th century a certain Abraam quondam Maier, holder of the local pawn bank, is recorded at Asolo.