Zeffer & Norberg (2003) have found that living birds with a distally placed tibialis cranialis tubercules were biomechanically inclined to emphasize force of flexion, rather than speed.

Arboreal parrots and other climbing birds also make use of forceful flexion to obtain stability while foraging or hanging from tree branches.

Gettyia was originally named Avisaurus gloriae by Varrichio and Chiappe (1995) for MOR 553E/6.19.91.64, a tarsometatarsus from the late Campanian Upper Two Medicine Formation of Glacier County, Montana, USA.

The species name honors Gloria Siebrecht, a volunteer fossil collector at the Museum of the Rockies who discovered the specimen.

To solve this problem, they created the genus name Gettyia for Avisaurus gloriae, honoring the late Mike Getty.