 It was named after Werner Carlos Augusto Bokermann—a prominent Brazilian herpetologist and former head of the bird department at the São Paulo Zoo.While it was once thought to have a wider geographic range, a 2013 analysis concluded that the population of "L. bokermanni" in the Atlantic Forest was actually a new, separate species, Peracchi's nectar bat.The implications of this taxonomic split were part of the reason that this species' listing was changed to endangered in 2016 by the IUCN, as it meant that it was not as widespread as previously thought.