The French biologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte created the genus "Phedina" in 1855 to accommodate the Mascarene martin, previously "Hirundo borbonica", which he considered to be sufficiently different from other "Hirundo" species to merit its own genus. The only other member of the genus is the Brazza's martin, "P. brazzae", first described by French zoologist Émile Oustalet in 1886. The genus name is derived from the Greek "phaios" (φαιός) "brown" and the Italian "rondine" "swallow". The species name for the Mascarene martin refers to the Île de Bourbon (Réunion), and that for Brazza's martin commemorates Italian-born French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, later to become governor-general of the French Congo, who collected the type specimen.