[3] The specific epithet, roquetus, refers to the name it was given by early French settlers on Guadeloupe; the indigenous Kalinago name for the species was never recorded.

Aside from fossil remains, it is only known from a single specimen collected by one Théodore Roger, who deposited it circa 1835 at the Natural History Museum in Bordeaux; this specimen was misidentified in the mid-20th century as a Martinique curlytail (L. herminieri).

The specimen was reexamined in 2015, and with the help of extensive Leiocephalus fossil remains discovered on La Désirade in 2018, was found to be a distinct species, and described as L. roquetus in 2021.

[1][4] This species, along with L.. herminieri, displays a primitive morphology compared to all other known species of Leiocephalus; it has thus been proposed that roquetus and herminieri belong to a basal clade of Leiocephalus restricted to the Lesser Antilles which has been completely wiped out by humans; all modern Leiocephalus are found only in the Greater Antilles and associated islands.

L. roquetus was likely driven to extinction by introduced species, habitat degradation, and intensive agriculture.