 In the original volume of "Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales" in which the species was described, the specific name is spelled as "bucculantus" in the legend, but is considered to be a typographical error and ignored.The species placement in "Caranx" has never been challenged and no attempts have been made to independently rename the species, making it one of the few members of "Caranx" to have no synonyms.The commonly used name of 'bluespotted trevally' is in reference to the fishes' body markings, with 'wide-mouthed trevally' also infrequently used.