The French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat described the bird in 1782, calling it "Pigeon Hollandais" (Dutch pigeon), a French vernacular name that derives from its red, white, and blue colouration, reminiscent of the Dutch flag (the French flag did not have these colours before the 1789 revolution). He had collected two specimens during a voyage in 1774. These syntype specimens were deposited in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. By 1893, only one of them, specimen MNHN n°C.G. 2000-727, still existed, and had been damaged by sulphuric acid in an attempt at fumigation. Since Sonnerat named and described them in French, the scientific naming of the bird was left to the Tyrolean naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, who did not observe a specimen himself, but Latinised Sonnerat's description in 1786. He named the bird "Columba nitidissima", which means "most brilliant pigeon".