The first species of sillaginid to be scientifically described was "Sillago sihama", by Peter Forsskål in 1775, who initially referred the species to a genus of hardyhead, "Atherina". It was not until 1817 that the type genus "Sillago" was created by Georges Cuvier based on his newly described species "Sillago acuta", which was later found to be a junior synonym of "S. sihama" and subsequently discarded. Cuvier continued to describe species of sillaginid with the publishing of his ichthyological work "Histoire Naturelle des Poissons" with Achille Valenciennes in 1829, also erecting the genus "Sillaginodes" in this work. The species "Cheilodipterus panijus" was named in 1822 by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and was subsequently reexamined by Theodore Gill in 1861, leading to the creation of the monotypic genus "Sillaginopsis". John Richardson was the first to propose that "Sillago", the only genus of sillaginid then recognised, be assigned to their own taxonomic family, "Sillaginidae" (used interchangeably with 'Sillaginoidae'), at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. There were, however, many differing opinions on the relationships of the "sillaginoids", leading to the naturalists of the day continually revising the position of the five genera, placing in them in a number of families. The first review of the sillaginid fishes was Gill's 1861 work "Synopsis of the sillaginoids", in which the name "Sillaginidae" was popularized and expanded on to include "Sillaginodes" and "Sillaginopsis", however the debate on the placement of the family remained controversial.