From Proto-Baltic *menkyā-, from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to knead, to crush”) (> “to weaken, to make small, low-valued”); the full en remained in Kurzeme dialects (compare, from the same stem, mīksts (“soft”), mīcīt (“to knead”), where en > ī), from which it spread to other dialects. The semantic development suggests that this fish was seen as unimportant or low-valued. Cognates include Lithuanian ménkė, dialectal menkia; the same stem is also found in Lithuanian meñkas (“minor, small, unimportant, weak”).