See text Linaria is a genus of small passerine birds in the finch family (Fringillidae) that contains the twite and the linnets.

The genus name linaria is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from linum, "flax".

A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences published in 2012 found that the genus was polyphyletic.

[3] It was therefore split into monophyletic genera and the twite and the linnets moved to the resurrected genus Linaria.

[4] The name had originally been introduced in 1802 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein.