It takes its name from Harlequin (Italian Arlecchino, French Arlequin), a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte.

In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the harlequin duck in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from Newfoundland in eastern Canada.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Anas histrionica and cited Edwards' work.

[3] The harlequin duck is now the only species placed in the genus Histrionicus that was introduced in 1828 by the French naturalist René Lesson.

[6] Two prehistoric harlequin ducks have been described from fossils, although both were initially placed in a distinct genus: Histrionicus shotwelli is known from Middle to Late Miocene deposits of Oregon, United States and was considered to form a distinct monotypic genus, Ocyplonessa.

Histrionicus ceruttii, which lived in California during the Late Pliocene, was at first taken to be a species of the related genus Melanitta.

[7] Their breeding habitat is cold fast moving streams in north-western and north-eastern North America, Greenland, Iceland and eastern Russia.

Both female and male harlequins exercise mate choice preference and pair-bond defense, to demonstrate fidelity to their partner.