More widespread, the word Mohr is part of the names of numerous historical houses or traditional companies such as inns and breweries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and in some cases in Luxemburg, the Czech Republic and Poland.

In 1834, Leopold Freiherr von Zedlitz wrote "it has been related that the street was named for a Mohr, who was in the service of the Margrave of Schwedt, and whose lord's generosity allowed him to build a house here.

During the era of Brandenburg-Prussian colonial rule of the Brandenburger Gold Coast, boys and young men were taken to Berlin and made to work as military musicians, Kammermohren, or valets.

[11] Contemporary works also depict the presence of people with dark skin in Berlin, such as Peter Schenk's colorized copper engraving "Schwarzer Militärmusiker am Brandenburger Hof" (1696–1701)[12] and Paul Carl Leygebe's painting of the "Tobacco roundtable of Fredrick I in Prussia", dated to 1709/1710, which depicts three young black men and a servant with a turban in Drap d'Or room of the Berlin Palace.

[14] Christian Kopp, an activist for Berlin Postkolonial e. V., suggests that Ulrich van der Heyden fails to provide evidence supporting his theory.

Kopp states that this visit occurred in 1684, over twenty years before the official naming of Mohrenstraße, citing Richard Schück; no documentation attests to Janke's lodgings.

Hausvogteiplatz [de], at the western end of the street, was the center of the German ready-made garment industry prior to the World War II.

[17] Other sources support the naming during the reign of Friedrich I (1688–1713), who was also ruler of the West African colony of Groß Friedrichsburg (present day Ghana) and who planned the construction of Friedrichstadt.

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai wrote about the area encompassing Mohrenstraße and Gendarmenmarkt: "The first construction took place in 1688, from what is today Kronenstraße to Jägerstraße, on the grounds of the former princely folwark and gardens [...] In 1706, the streets received their names.

[3] In July 2023, the Berlin administrative court rejected claims filed by historian Götz Aly and residents who objected to the name change.