[3] In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the satyr tragopan in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

[5] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the satyr tragopan with the wild turkey in the genus Meleagris.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Meleagris satyra and cited Edwards' work.

[8] The genus name is from Latin tragopan, a mythical horned purple-headed bird mentioned by the Roman authors Pliny and Pomponius Mela.

The specific epithet satyra is from the Latin satyrus meaning "satyr", a Roman deity often depicted with horns.