The authors agree that the surname derives from the Latin given name Maurus, of broad diffusion in the early Middle Ages. F. De Laurentiis specifies that Maurus was a Latin demonym and personal name designating the "inhabitant or native of North Africa, of Mauretania; belonging to the people of the Mauri", passed on to the surname by a learned or semi-learned route.

The diffusion of the name is held to have been linked to the veneration of Saint Maurus, a companion of Saint Benedict. Among the documented historical testimonies, it is noted that the Mauri were a family of some weight in the upper Brianza, with a recorded presence at the beginning of the 15th century in the localities of Lake Pusiano. A parish of the Monte di Brianza area bore precisely the name Squadra dei Mauri, where the term squadra alluded to an old territorial division.

In 1539 a certain Ambrosius de Maveris appears in the registers of the merchants of Monza, a form which goes back to the variant Maveri, related to the same origin. The surname is also recorded with this alternative variant.