The authors agree in pointing to a Germanic origin for this surname. E. Rossoni considers it very rare and places it as characteristic of southern Calabria, and links the form Malgherini —also very rare and possibly from Puglia— to the medieval name Malgerius, attested in the 12th century in Puglia with the Norman Malgerius d'Altavilla. Rossoni further notes that the surname corresponds to the French Mauger (formerly Malgier), derived from malgarius, a term designating the "cheesemaker" or the "owner of a mountain dairy".

V. Blunda considers it of Sicilian origin and proposes a different etymology: the Germanic compound Amal-Gari, formed by amal —referring to the Amal dynasty, the royal house of the Ostrogoths— and gari ("spear"), with the joint meaning of "spear of the Amals" or "Ostrogothic spear". This reading goes back to the Gothic world that dominated Italy from the 5th century, headed by figures such as Theodoric the Great.

Both readings start from a common Germanic base, although they differ on the region of origin —Calabria or Sicily— and on the etymological form they posit.