The holotype had been collected in the Okavango Delta of Botswana in April 2009.

from Latin confer), before being named Neoromicia stanleyi  in honor of William Stanley, who was the mammal collection manager at the Field Museum of Natural History from 1989 to 2015.

[2] In 2020, phylogenetic analysis found it to belong to the genus Laephotis rather than Neoromicia.

It possesses larger cranial features than other species of its genus and is distinguished from N. capensis by a number of bacular characters.

[1] The species is found across Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia, and is also presumed to inhabit the northern part of South Africa and Malawi.