Well known around the Sydney district at the time of European settlement in 1788, the turquoise parrot was described by George Shaw as "Psittacus pulchellus" in 1792. He called it the Turquoisine after its turquoise face patch. The holotype likely ended up in the Leverian collection in England, and was lost when the collection was broken up and sold. German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein gave it the scientific name "Psittacus edwardsii" in 1811, based on François Levaillant's description of the species as "la Perruche Edwards" in his 1805 work "Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets". Levaillant named it in honour of the English naturalist George Edwards. William Swainson used Shaw's name in 1823 in his work "Zoological Illustrations", noting that it was "impossible to represent this superb little creature in its full beauty". Drawing on the previous works, René Primevère Lesson described it as "Lathamus azureus" in 1830, the species name being the Medieval Latin word "azureus" meaning "blue".