The genus is named after the Prussian botanist Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim (1749–1800).[1][6] The Latin specific epithet of lima refers to the Latin noun of file, often referring to a rough surface.[7] Wangenheimia was first described and published in Methodus on page 200 in 1794.[4] The species was first published in Fund. Agrost. on page 132 in 1820.[8]