The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern",[2] and the specific dougallii refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814).

[6] This species has a number of geographical subspecies, differing mainly in bill colour and minor plumage details.

S. d. dougallii breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, and winters south to the Caribbean and west Africa.

The tropical forms S. d. korustes and S. d. bangsi are resident breeders from east Africa across the Indian Ocean to Japan.

[11] With their favouring partly hidden nest sites, the provision of nestboxes has proven a dramatic conservation success, with the birds taking to them very readily.

This results in greatly increased breeding productivity with the protection given to the young from predatory birds like herring gulls.

In 2018, for the first time in more than a decade, a pair fledged two chicks on the Skerries, off Anglesey after a RSPB project over previous years involving wardening, newly designed nest boxes being placed strategically around the islands along with lures playing roseate tern calls and hand-made decoys.

[10] In the UK the roseate tern has been designated for protection under the official government's national Biodiversity Action Plan.

One of the main reasons given in the UK plan for threat to the species is global warming, creating an alteration of vertical profile distribution for its food source fishes.

The roseate tern is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.