The authors differ on the origin of this surname. E. De Felice considers it predominantly proper to Jewish communities of Sephardic origin, refugees from the Iberian peninsula by way of southern France, and documents it sporadically in northern Italy. According to De Felice, the surname constitutes a calque of the Aramaic rabbì ("my master", an honorific title of the doctors of the law), arisen from the term "master" in the languages of the areas of origin: Portuguese mestre, Spanish maestro, Provençal and Catalan maestre, and Old French maistre with its variant mestre.

E. Rossoni, by contrast, places it specifically at Noventa di Piave and San Donà di Piave, in the province of Venice, and links it with a toponymic origin: it would derive from the name of the city of Mestre, also in the province of Venice, whose place name would in turn go back to the Latin name Mestrius.

Both perspectives point to independent clusters of origin (ceppi), with distinct ethnic and geographical motivations, which suggests that the surname has independent origins in different regions of Italy.