In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red fody in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Madagascar. He used the French name Le cardinal de Madagascar and the Latin Cardinalis Madagascariensis.
The French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson documented the red fody in 1760, drawing from a specimen he had collected in Madagascar. He assigned it the French title Le cardinal de Madagascar and the scientific name Cardinalis Madagascariensis.