The common diving petrel was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin.

[2] Gmelin based his description on the "diving petrel" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in the second volume of his A General Synopsis of Birds.

Latham reported that they were found in great numbers in Queen Charlotte Sound at the northern end of South Island, New Zealand.

[4][5] The genus name, Pelecanoides, means "Pelican-resembling", which was assigned to the diving petrels on account of their expandable throat pouches that they use to carry food.

Its subspecies' names include chathamensis, referring to the Chatham Islands, exsul, meaning "isolated" or "remote", dacunhae, referring to the Tristan da Cunha Islands, berard, honoring French navigator Auguste Bérard, and coppingeri, which honors Royal Navy surgeon and naturalist Richard William Coppinger.

[7][8] Another difference is that the South Georgia diving petrel has a posterior black line down the tarsi.

Feeding is mostly done in the ocean near the shore, but sometimes in the deeper pelagic zone during non-breeding season, which is only 2 months of the year.