The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate.

They have relatively short bills and feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.

[1] The genus Charadrius was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[2] The name had been used (as Charadrios sive Hiaticula) by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 for the common ringed plover.

As a result, Charadrius now consists of only 11 species:[8] Another species, the Auckland Islands shore plover (Charadrius (Thinornis) rossii), known from just one specimen collected in 1840, is now generally considered to be a juvenile shore plover whose location was incorrectly recorded.