The elegant parrot was called carteri, bilgir, or koolyederong by Aboriginal peoples.

[2] Its English name came from the renowned ornithologist and artist John Gould in 1837, its specific name Latin for "elegant".

It is one of six species of grass parrot in the genus Neophema, and within it a member of the subgenus Neonanodes.

[3] The elegant parrot is found in two disjunct regions, one across southwestern Australia from Moora in the north to Merredin and Esperance in the east, and in southeastern South Australia (including Kangaroo Island) north to Marree, and east into western Victoria.

A hollow higher than 15 m (49 ft) above the ground in a tree, usually a eucalypt along a watercourse or in a stringybark forest, is utilised for nesting, and a clutch of four to six round white eggs measuring 21 x 18 mm is laid there.