The humpback was first identified as "baleine de la Nouvelle Angleterre" by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his "Regnum Animale" of 1756. In 1781, Georg Heinrich Borowski described the species, converting Brisson's name to its Latin equivalent, "Balaena novaeangliae". In 1804, Lacépède shifted the humpback from the family Balaenidae, renaming it "B. jubartes". In 1846, John Edward Gray created the genus "Megaptera", classifying the humpback as "Megaptera longipinna", but in 1932, Remington Kellogg reverted the species names to use Borowski's "novaeangliae". The common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name "Megaptera" from the Ancient Greek "mega-" ("giant") and "ptera"/ ("wing"), refers to their large front flippers. The specific name means "New Englander" and was probably given by Brisson due to regular sightings of humpbacks off the coast of New England.