The spotted dove was formally described in 1786 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli and given the binomial name "Columba chinensis". This species was formerly included in the genus "Streptopelia". A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2001 found the genus was paraphyletic with respect to "Columba". To create monophyletic genera the spotted dove as well as the closely related laughing dove were moved to the resurrected genus "Spilopelia" that had been introduced by the Swedish zoologist Carl Sundevall in 1873. Sundevall had designated "Columba tigrina" as the type species, a taxon that is now considered a subspecies of the spotted dove.