The first published reference to the plant appears in James Edward Smith's 1807 An introduction to physiological and systematical botany, where Smith used it to argue that the tepals of liliaceous plants are sepals rather than petals:

The following year, Richard Salisbury published the first Brodiaea species in his Paradisus Londinensis, but placed it in the genus Hookera as Hookera coronaria. Smith disagreed with this placement, and in April 1808 read a formal description of a new genus before the Linnean Society of London, naming the genus in honour of Scottish botanist James Brodie (1744-1824). Formal publication did not occur, however, until Smith's presentation went to print in 1811.

Taxonomy

Different current systems place the genus in three different families. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group place it in family Themidaceae. Many other modern authors place it in the family Alliaceae. Both of these families are in the order Asparagales. However, older but still widely used sources such as ITIS place the Triplet lilies in the family Liliaceae, in the order Liliales. The present article follows the recommendations of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.

Brodiaea is also used as a common name to refer to the three genera Brodiaea, Dichelostemma, and Triteleia. The latter two genera were once included as part of the genus Brodiaea.