[4] Acanthurus thompsoni has a specific name honouring John W. Thompson, an artist and modeller at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu who received the type specimen.

It is absent from the Red Sea but occurs along the eastern coast of Africa from the Gulf of Aden, although its occurrence in Somalia is not yet confirmed,[1] south to Sodwana Bay in South Africa.

[6] It is then found across the Indian Ocean east into the Pacific Ocean as far east as the Pitcairn Islands and Hawaii, south to the Great Barrier Reef and New Caledonia and north to Kochi Prefecture of southern Japan.

[1] It lives in sandy and coral areas in clear water on steep drop offs and outer reef slopes.

[7] Acanthurus thompsoni lives singly or in small groups and feeds on zooplankton.