the generic name "campellolebias" is a combination of campello, which honours the brazilian chemical engineer, aquarist and amateur ichthyologist gilberto campello brasil (1945-2008) and "lebias" a greek word for a small fish which was applied to killifish by georges cuvier and is now used a root for names within the order cyprinodontiformes. vaz ferreira & sierra de soriano described campello brasil as an “enthusiastic scholar” of brazilian killifishes and he also collected specimens, sending them to the vaz ferreira & sierra de soriano.