 These two "blue wrens" are closely related to the purple-crowned fairywren of north-western Australia.Specimens were initially collected at King George Sound, and the splendid fairywren then described as "Saxicola splendens" by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830, three years before John Gould gave it the scientific name of "Malurus pectoralis" and vernacular name of banded superb-warbler.Though he correctly placed it in the genus "Malurus", the specific name of the former authors took priority.