F. De Laurentiis and E. Rossoni agree that the surname may derive from the nickname and occupational name pevera ('large funnel inserted into the bunghole of barrels for bottling wine') and peveraio, attributed to one who worked in a wine cellar.

E. Rossoni adds other hypotheses: that it derives from the dialect name of the trade of spice merchant, originating in the Venetan term pevere ('pepper' and, by extension, 'spicy'), or else from a nickname related to a rather spicy character of the ancestor.