The authors agree that this surname derives from the term of Celtic origin nava, which designates a "hollow" or "basin between mountains", and which is linked to numerous place names distributed across northern Italy.

E. Rossoni notes that this Celtic word, with the sense of "plain between woods", is widely represented as a place name in Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont, and considers the surname typically Lombard. He further adds a hypothesis of Spanish origin, linked to the principality of Nava in Asturias.

F. De Laurentiis proposes, by contrast, that the surname could be a shortened form of Navarra, without ruling out that it has as its base the numerous place names Nava scattered across northern Italy.

A presence of the surname is also recorded in the Bergamo area.