 The genus name was selected by Mitchell to honor the director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Henry De la Beche, while the Latin specific epithet "rupestris" (meaning living among rocks) alludes to the rocky hilltop habitat of specimens observed by Mitchell.Ferdinand von Mueller, the Government Botanist in Victoria, renamed it "Brachychiton delabechei" in 1862, incorporating the genus "Delabechea" into "Brachychiton".In his landmark "Flora Australiensis", English botanist George Bentham published the first key for the nine described species of "Brachychiton", and relegated them to a section of "Sterculia".