[1] It was described as a new species in 1907 by Danish mammalogist Knud Andersen.

Andersen stated that the eponym for the species name "doriae" was Italian naturalist Giacomo Doria, who "always so generously placed his intimate knowledge of Chiroptera and the rich collections of the Museum under his charge at the service of specialists."

Andersen had obtained the holotype from Doria's museum in Genoa.

The holotype had been initially collected by German entomologist Heinrich Wolfgang Ludwig Dohrn[2] Andersen wrote that it was most similar in appearance to Peters's wrinkle-lipped bat, Mormopterus jugularis.

[2] The holotype was collected in Soekaranda in the Deli Serdang Regency of northwest Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia.