Rhabdosargus is a genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies.

S. auriventris is considered to be a junior synonym of Sparus sarba[2] which had been described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin from notes written by Peter Forsskål.

[3] The genus Rhabdosargus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.

[4] Rhabdosargus is a combination of rhabdos, meaning "stick" or "rod", an allusion to the yellow abdominal band of Sargus auriventris, the type species.

The second part is Sargos, a name used for Sparid fish in ancient Greek at least as long ago as Aristotle but in this case is a reference to Sargus as a synonym of Diplodus.