E. De Stefani offers a detailed analysis of this surname as a microtoponymic term derived from the place name Centa, spread in various areas of Friuli and documented from the end of the 14th century with the sense of "enclosed terrain, cultivated mostly as an orchard". This place name goes back to the Latin cincta, in turn from cingere, and over time became a surname. The oldest documentary forms, attested from the middle of the 16th century in the Socchieve valley and in other areas of the Carnia, include spellings such as à Centa, centae and a Senta, which reflect the Friulian graphic oscillation.

According to De Stefani, the surname survives today in Udine, in Poincicco —a hamlet of Zoppola, in the province of Pordenone— and in Maniago, also in the province of Pordenone, where the derived form Centazzo, with the suffix -azzo, is also attested. The variant Di Centa is preserved in Ampezzo and in Rivo, a hamlet of Paluzza, both in the Carnia. The place name also appears in Priuso, in Avosacco —a hamlet of Arta Terme— and in Prepotto.

E. Rossoni proposes, on the other hand, that the surname derives from place names such as Centa S. Nicolò, in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige, or from the name of a locality near the Centa torrent, in the Belluno area.