[7] Acanthopagrus schlegelii has a specific name that honours the German ornithologist and herpetologist Hermann Schlegel who co-wrote Fauna Japonica with Coenraad Jacob Temminck, a book Bleeker often cited.

The subspecies A. s. czerskii honours the ornithologists Alexander Ivanovich Czerski, the son of Jan Czerski, a celebrated Polish geologist, naturalist and explorer, who collected the type specimen.

[8] The overall colour is black or grey, silvery on the belly, with indistinct vertical stripes along the body and a round spot on the upper margin of the operculum.

This species is found in sheltered bays, on shallow rocky reefs and in brackish waters down as deep as 50 m (160 ft).

[1] This species is an important fish in aquaculture in Korea, China and Japan.