The French clergyman Jean-Baptiste Labat described the bird in 1742, and it was mentioned in later natural history works by writers such as Mathurin Jacques Brisson, Comte de Buffon, and John Latham; the latter gave it the name "ruff-necked parrot".

German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin coined the scientific name Psittacus violaceus for the bird in his 1789 edition of Systema Naturae, based on the writings of Du Tertre, Brisson, and Buffon.

[5] In 1891, the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori included Psittacus violaceus in a list of synonyms of the red-fan parrot (Deroptyus accipitrinus), a South American species.

Clark instead suggested that the Guadeloupe species was most closely related to the extant, similarly coloured imperial amazon (Amazona imperialis) of Dominica.

[8] In 2001, the American ornithologists Matthew Williams and David Steadman argued in favor of the idea that the early accounts were a solid basis for the Guadeloupe amazon's existence.

[11] In contrast the English ornithologist Julian P. Hume wrote in 2012 that though the amazon species of Guadeloupe and Martinique were based on accounts rather than physical remains, he found it likely they once existed, having been mentioned by trusted observers, and on zoogeographical grounds.

[12][11] In 1905, the British banker and zoologist Walter Rothschild named Anodorhynchus purpurascens, based on an old description of a deep violet parrot seen on Guadeloupe, found in an 1838 publication by a "Don de Navaret".

He was unable to check the reference given by Rothschild, but suggested it may have been a publication by the Spanish historian Martín Fernández de Navarrete.

[9] The biologists James W. Wiley and Guy M. Kirwan were also unable to find the reference to the violet macaw in 2013, but pointed out an account by the Italian historian Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who described how the Spanish took parrots that were mainly purple from Guadeloupe during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus.

[17][18] In 2015, Lenoble reviewed overlooked historical Spanish and French texts, and identified the sources on which Rothschild had based the violet macaw.

An 1828 publication by de Navarrete mentioned parrots on Guadeloupe during the second voyage of Columbus, but did not state their colour or include the term "onécouli".

Lenoble concluded that this referred to the Guadeloupe amazon since Breton appears to have reserved the word parrot for birds smaller than macaws, and due to the consistent plumage pattern mentioned.

[2][8][4] Rothschild featured an illustration of the Guadeloupe amazon in his 1907 book Extinct Birds by the Dutch artist John Gerrard Keulemans, based on the early descriptions.

[20] In 1664 Du Tertre described some behavioural traits of the Guadeloupe amazon, and listed items among its diet: When it erects the feathers of its neck, it makes a beautiful ruff about its head, which it seems to admire, as a peacock its tail.

[2] In 1667, Du Tertre repeated his description of the Guadeloupe amazon, and added some details about its breeding behaviour: We had two which built their nest a hundred paces from our house in a large tree.

All the amazon species still extant on the West Indian islands are endangered, since they are trapped for the pet-trade and overhunted for food, and also because of destruction of their habitat.