The species was described by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1772. The generic name has three possible etymologies. One is that it comes from the Greek ""noumenios"". ""Noumenios"" means "of the new moon", the thin beak of this curlew being compared to a thin crescent moon. A second possibility is that the genus name is derived from the word "numen", meaning "nod", and referring to this species head being bent forward and down. The final possibility is that "Numenius" is a Latinized form of the Greek "noumenios", which was the word Diogenes Laërtius used to refer to a species of curlew. The specific name ""borealis"" is Latin for "northern".