E. Rossoni notes that this surname is typical of the province of Ferrara, with presences also in the province of Bologna and in Veneto. He links it, together with related forms such as Menegaz, Menegazzi, Menegazzo and Menegatto, to dialect diminutive modifications of the reduced form of the name Domenico. Rossoni documents its fixing as a surname at Campo San Martino, in the province of Padua, from 1540, and mentions the Ferrarese painter Giuseppe Menegatti and the notary Crestan Menegatti, in the province of Vicenza, both active in the first half of the 17th century.

F. De Laurentiis derives it from Menico, another reduced form of the same name Domenico, which is compatible with Rossoni's analysis.