 The specimen was mounted and later formed the basis for a scientific description authored by German ichthyologist Günther Maul in a 1955 article for "Notulae Naturae".He named the species "noronhai" in honor of Adolfo César de Noronha, the late Director of the Funchal Museum.Maul assigned his new species to the genus "Carcharias", which at the time was used for all members of the sand tiger shark family.