This species was originally described as Olonia viridiventris in 1863 by Carl Stål, and was reassigned to the new genus Hackerobrachys in 2006 by Jérôme Constant.

[1] The genus name takes its first part from Henry Hacker, an entomologist who had studied this and other Australian eurybrachids.

The second part is "brachys", a Greek word meaning "short", and is commonly used in names of eurybrachid genera (e.g. Eurybrachys, Platybrachys).

The species name "viridiventris" is Latin for "green belly" and presumably refers to either the colour of the abdomen or the frons.

[1] There exists a second undescribed species, also from Australia, with a red head instead of a lime green one.