The genus Grus was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.

[2] The German ornithologist Peter Simon Pallas was sometimes credited with erecting the genus in 1766[3] but the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 1956 that Brisson should have priority.

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the genus Grus, as then defined, was polyphyletic.

The Late Pleistocene Mediterranean Grus primigenia was hunted by Stone Age humans.

"Grus" conferta (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Contra Costa County, USA) is apparently too different from the modern genus to be placed herein, but its affiliations are not well resolved.