In the 19th century this species was commonly called the "laughing jackass", a name first recorded (as Laughing Jack-Ass) in "An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales" by David Collins which was published in 1798. In 1858 the ornithologist John Gould used "great brown kingfisher", a name that had been coined by John Latham in 1782. Another popular name was "laughing kingfisher". The names in several Australian indigenous languages were listed by European authors including "Go-gan-ne-gine" by Collins in 1798, "Cuck'anda" by René Lesson in 1828 and "Gogera" or "Gogobera" by George Bennett in 1834. In the early years of the 20th century "kookaburra" was included as an alternative name in ornithological publications, but it was not until 1926 in the second edition of the "Official Checklist of Birds of Australia" that the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union officially adopted the name "laughing kookaburra". The name comes from Wiradjuri, an endangered Aboriginal language.