In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Madagascar green pigeon in his Ornithologie based on specimen that he had examined.

He used the French name Le pigeon ramier verd de Madagascar and the Latin Palumbus viridis madagascariensis.

[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[4] When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus revised his Mantissa Plantarum in 1771 he added an appendix which included a description of the Madagascar green pigeon.

[6] The species is now placed in the genus Treron that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.