In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the opal-rumped tanager in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

[2] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the opal-rumped tanager with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Motacilla velia and cited Edwards' work.

[3] Linnaeus provided no explanation for the specific epithet; it is perhaps a misprint for the Ancient Greek elea, a small bird mentioned by Aristotle.

[4] The bay-headed tanager is now placed in the genus Tangara that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.