The surname shows independent clusters of origin (ceppi) with divergent etymologies according to the authors.

E. Rossoni places it in the central-western strip of northern Italy, with cores in the Bologna and Verona areas, as well as a possible presence in Lombardy. He derives it from the term mannaia ("axe"), noting that in the dialects of Lombardy and Piedmont the word manarin ("small axe") survived until the 1950s.

V. Blunda, by contrast, proposes a Germanic root for the Sicilian cluster: the compound Magin Hari, formed by magin ("strength, power") and hari ("army, host"), with the overall meaning of "powerful host". Blunda also mentions that the variant Manera shows a consonant simplification proper to southern Italy. Among the historical bearers of the surname, Luciano Manara (1825–1849) stands out, a Lombard patriot who commanded the corps of volunteer bersaglieri in the defence of the Roman Republic and became one of the symbols of the Italian Risorgimento.