[2] The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds.

The English name and specific bairdii commemorate Spencer Fullerton Baird, 19th-century naturalist and assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

They are dark brown on top and mainly white underneath with a black patch on the rump.

This bird can be difficult to distinguish from other similar tiny shorebirds; these are known collectively as "peeps" or "stints".

Baird's sandpipers breed in the northern tundra from eastern Siberia to western Greenland.