A molecular phylogenetic study of the Cisticolidae published in 2013 found that the rufous-vented grass babbler did not lie within the clade containing the other prinias but instead belonged to the Pellorneidae.

[2] To create monophyletic genera, the rufous-vented prinia and the closely related swamp grass babbler were placed in the reintroduced genus Laticilla in the Pellorneidae.

[3] The genus Laticilla had been erected by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1845 with the rufous-vented prinia as the type species.

The genus replaced Eurycercus that Blyth had introduced in 1844 only to subsequently discover that the name was preoccupied.

[4][5] The name Laticilla comes from the Latin latus for "wide" or "broad" and cilla for "tail".