The toucan barbet was described by the Scottish naturalist William Jardine, who placed it in the new genus "Tetragonops". The specific name, "ramphastinus", is modern Latin for toucan-like, based on Linnaeus' genus "Ramphastos" (1758). In 1899, Charles Richmond of the United States National Museum discovered that the genus name was preoccupied (meaning it had been used earlier for another genus) and placed the toucan barbet and its sister species the prong-billed barbet ("Semnornis frantzii") in a new genus "Pan", after the ancient god of the forest. The following year, Richmond issued a correction, as the name he had chosen was itself preoccupied (by the chimpanzees) and erected a new genus "Semnornis" for the two species.