[5] Naso vlamingii has the specific name which honours the Dutch explorer Admiral Cornelis de Vlamingh who collected specimens and drew illustrations of fishes for the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Valenciennes based his description on one of Vlamingh's illustrations.

[2] Naso vlamingii has a wide Indo-Pacific range which extends from the eastern coast of Africa between Kenya and South Africa, through the Indian Ocean islands, but it is absent the continental southern Asian waters, through the Andaman Sea, Indonesia and into the Pacific.

In the Pacific it extends north to southern Japan, east to the Galápagos Islands and south to New Caledonia and Australia.

[1] In Australia the species is found at a number of offshore islands and reefs, as well as from the northern Great Barrier Reef south to waters off Sydney in New South Wales and in the waters around Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.

Juveniles are herbivores; feeding mainly with algae, semi-adults are omnivores and adults are primarily carnivores; hunting for zooplankton.

[6] Naso vlamingii are targeted by subsistence fisheries in some areas, as well as being occasionally captured for the aquarium trade.