The authors differ as to the origin of this surname. E. Rossoni proposes two interpretative lines: on the one hand, a possible derivation from the name of literary origin Maelgut, recorded in the Chanson de Roland; on the other, an origin in the medieval nickname Malacutus, attested mainly in the lower plain of the Modena and Ferrara areas. From this last would derive the form Malacut(u)lus, which would have given rise to the surname Malaguzzi, predominant in the Reggio Emilia area. Rossoni places the surname in the area comprising Modena, Bologna and Ferrara, within the region of Emilia-Romagna.

F. De Laurentiis proposes instead that the base of the surname is a nickname formed on malagola, that is, "bad throat" (from the Latin guttur), with a possible allusion to some physical defect or defect of speech in the original bearer.

P. Canè offers a reading of a more descriptive character: he suggests that Malaguti, like other surnames beginning with mal-, could answer to the custom of imposing nicknames of a negative or mocking tone, which in time became surnames. Along those lines, he reads the name as "badly sharp", with the sense of "not very intelligent".