The authors agree that the surname derives from a place name: it is linked with localities such as Novate Milanese or Novate Mezzola, in the Sondrio area, both in the region of Lombardy.

These place names are held to belong to the category of the predial names, that is, names that refer to properties or lands as the object of legal or fiscal norms. The early-medieval Latin form praedialis derives from the Latin praedium, which designated a landed property. According to this perspective, the root of the place name Novate would be the Latin cognomen Novus, so that the locality would originally have been the property of someone so called. This type of place name also appears in Piedmont and in the canton of Ticino.

E. Rossoni broadens the possibilities of origin and indicates that the surname could likewise derive from the Latin name Novatianus or from the Late Latin Novatius, personal forms from which the surname could also have arisen directly. Rossoni further notes that the surname is proper to the area covering the Milan, Varese and Como areas.