The slippery jack was one of the many species first described in 1753 by the "father of taxonomy" Carl Linnaeus, who, in the second volume of his "Species Plantarum", gave it the name "Boletus luteus". The specific epithet is the Latin adjective "lūtěus", meaning "yellow". The fungus was reclassified as (and became the type species of) the genus "Suillus" by French naturalist Henri François Anne de Roussel in 1796. "Suillus" is an ancient term for fungi, and is derived from "swine". In addition to the British Mycological Society approved name "slippery jack", other common names for this bolete include "pine boletus" and "sticky bun"—the latter referring to its resemblance to the pastry.