The authors agree that the surname was formed from the term argento ("silver"), linked to the trade or as a personal name.

E. De Felice specifies that it has as its base the nickname and trade name Argento, derived from argento —in old Italian ariento, and in Emilian arzàint, plural arzént—, which had already become a name and also a surname in the Middle Ages. The motivation is related both to the preciousness and beauty of the material and to the trade of the argentiere, "the one who works silver and sells silver objects".

De Felice adds that in Emilia-Romagna the base may also be, in some cases, the place name Argenta, in the province of Ferrara. He notes that the surname is widespread in northern and central Italy, as far as the Naples area, but is peculiar to Emilia-Romagna in the -z- forms.

E. Rossoni agrees on the derivation from the silversmith's trade or from the name Argento, fairly widespread in central Italy in medieval times, or from its affectionate forms. He documents the transformation into a surname in Capua (Caserta area) in a deed of 1120.

Rossoni recalls that in Florence, in the 13th century, lived Filippo Argenti, a contemporary and personal enemy of Dante, of the political faction of the Black Guelphs, whom Dante places in the fifth circle of the Inferno.