It was named after the Prince of Orange (Dutch: Prins van Oranje) Willem-Alexander to commemorate his coronation as King of the Netherlands.

[2] Penicillium vanoranjei was identified using a combination of morphological traits and genetic analysis on soil samples taken from Tunisia.

That same month, Prince of Orange (Dutch: Prins van Oranje) Willem-Alexander was set to become the king of Netherlands.

Inspired by the orange colors of P. vanoranjei, Pedro Crous and his colleagues at the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre decided to "pay a humorous but respectful tribute by naming the new moulds after the new King of the Netherlands and his family.

In the Netherlands, the naming was especially well-covered including TV news stories and radio interviews of the paper's authors.