The specific epithet vulpinus is derived from the Latin vulpes meaning "fox", and in some older literature the species name was given incorrectly as Alopias vulpes.[5] "Fox shark" is the earliest known English name for this species and is rooted in classical antiquity, from a belief that it was especially cunning. In the mid-19th century, the name "fox" was mostly superseded by "thresher", referencing the shark's flail-like use of its tail. This species is often known simply as thresher shark or thresher; Henry Bigelow and William Schroeder introduced the name "common thresher" in 1945 to differentiate it from the bigeye thresher (A. superciliosus).[6] It is also known by many other common names, including Atlantic thresher, grayfish, green thresher, long-tailed shark, sea ape, sea fox, slasher, swiveltail, thintail thresher, thrasher shark, and whiptail shark.[2][7]