 A description as a subgeneric arrangement, "Stagonopleura" ("Zonaeginthus") "oculata", was published in 2006, confirming the presumed alliance to its sister species "Stagonopleura" ("Zonaeginthus") "bellus"—the beautiful firetail—that was suggested by Gould and subsequent authors.Earlier names for this population of birds in the Nyungar language were recorded by the field researcher John Gilbert and published in Gould's "Birds of Australia" and handbook.Similar names with variant spellings were given for the districts of King George Sound, Darling Range, and Perth by Serventy and Whittell in their mid-twentieth century "A Handbook of the Birds of Western Australia (with the exception of the Kimberley Division)" (1948).