A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2009 found that the genus Aimophila was polyphyletic.

[3] In the resulting reorganization to create monophyletic genera, eight species were moved from Aimophila to the resurrected genus Peucaea.

[4] Peucaea had been introduced by the Franco-American ornithologist John James Audubon in 1839.

[5] The genus name is from the Ancient Greek peukē meaning "pine-tree".

[6] The type species was designated by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1841 as Fringilla bachmani, a taxon now considered to be a subspecies of Bachman's sparrow with the trinomial name Peucaea aestivalis bachmani.