[1] Several extinct species are known, including the recently described Otis hellenica from the Turolian of Greece.

At 19 kg (42 lb), it was larger than its extant relative.

[2] The genus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae;[3] it came from the Greek name ὠτίς ōtis[4][5] taken from Natural History by Pliny the Elder published around 77 AD which briefly mentions a bird like it.

These names were further mentioned by Pierre Belon in 1555 and Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1600.

[6][7] Linnaeus placed four species in the genus, but the type species was designated as the great bustard (Otis tarda) by George Robert Gray in 1840.