The storm petrel was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" as "Procellaria pelagica". It was moved to the genus "Hydrobates" by Friedrich Boie in 1822. "Petrel", first recorded in 1602, is a corruption of "pitteral", referring to the bird's pitter-pattering across the water. The suggestion that the word refers to St Peter's walking on the waves is a later invention. "Storm" arises from seamen's association of this bird with bad weather. In English, the name of the species was written as "stormy petrel" by some 19th-century authors.