Zoologist and pharmacist Edward Blyth described the many-banded krait as a new species in 1861, noting that it had many more bands than the banded krait ("Bungarus fasciatus"). It still bears its original name "Bungarus multicinctus". The generic name is a Latinisation of Telugu "baṅgāru", "krait." The specific name "multicinctus" is derived from the Latin "multi-", combining form of "multus", "much, many", and Latin "cinctus", past participle of "cingere", "to encircle"—as in a "band". The common name "krait" is from Hindi (करैत karait), which is perhaps ultimately derived from the Sanskrit word (काल kāla), which means "black". It is also called as "கட்டுவிரியன்" in Tamil, a common name given to the genus "Bungarus".