The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate.

It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in river valleys (kharadra, "ravine").

The specific dubius is Latin for doubtful, since Sonnerat, writing in 1776, thought this bird might be just a variant of common ringed plover.

This species differs from the larger ringed plover in leg colour, the head pattern, and the presence of a clear yellow eye-ring.

The little ringed plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.