The red-necked grebe was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his "Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux". The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the "Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle" which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name "Colymbus grisegena" in his catalogue of the "Planches Enluminées". The type locality was subsequently designated as France. The red-necked grebe is now placed in the genus "Podiceps" that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787. The genus name "Podiceps" comes from Latin "podicis", "vent" or "anus", and "pes", "foot", and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body. The species name "grisegena" is from Latin "griseus" (grey) and "gena" (cheek) and refers to the face pattern of the breeding adult.