The correct spelling of the species, "D. russelii", has been, and still is, a matter of debate. Shaw & Nodder (1797), in their account of the species "Coluber russelii", named it after Dr. Patrick Russell, but apparently misspelled his name, using only one "L" instead of two. Russell (1727–1805) was the author of "An Account of Indian Serpents" (1796) and "A Continuation of an Account of Indian Serpents" (1801). McDiarmid et al. (1999) are among those who favor the original misspelling, citing Article 32c (ii) of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Others, such as Zhao and Adler (1993) favor "russellii".