See text Selasphorus is a genus of hummingbirds from Middle and North America.

The genus Selasphorus was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson to accommodate the rufous hummingbird which is now the type species.

[2][3] The name combines the Ancient Greek selas meaning "light" or "flame" with -phoros meaning "-carrying".

Molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2014 and 2017 found that Atthis was embedded within Selasphorus.

The genera were therefore merged and these hummingbirds were moved to Selasphorus.