The authors agree that this surname derives from the Arabic word mawlà, with the sense of "lord", "master", "guide" or "superior". E. De Felice documents its presence in Sicily from the 12th century, in texts with Greek characters, under the forms mulé or mōlé, with the meaning "patron" or "chief". He adds that in Liguria it appears as a personal name in 1433 and that as early as 1163 a certain Mullena is recorded in Genoa, derived from the Arabic maulena, "our lord".

E. Rossoni broadens the semantic field of the Arabic etymon —which he equates with the mullah of the Scythian peoples— and indicates that its fixing as a surname is documented in 1229 in a document from Rhodes. Rossoni places the surname as proper to central-western Sicily.