In maritime and harbour terminology, the word mandracchio denotes, in some Italian ports, a body of water reserved for the mooring of a large number of fishing boats and small craft, such as launches and barges. The term is now obsolete, though it is traditionally kept alive in a few places and in some place names.

The word mandracchio comes from the Latin mandra, "enclosure, receptacle". In the old port of Genoa, this smaller space was known as the Mandraccio, a name it still bears today, which leads one to suppose that the surname Mandraccio is toponymic: it would have been a byname identifying the people who lived or worked in that area, and it became a typically Ligurian surname.

Mandracci is found in Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy. Mandracchia is a typically Sicilian surname and, although it has the same origin, it may have been used in a pejorative sense, to identify a prostitute and her descendants.