 The genus "Richea" was named by Robert Brown in "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae," 555 (1810) after Claude Antoine Gaspar Riche (1762–1797) who was a doctor and botanist on the French frigate "Espérence", one of two frigates from the 1792 Bruni d’Entrecastreaux expedition.The species "R. gunnii" was named after Tasmanian plant collector Ronald Campbell Gunn who collected specimens from Mount Wellington and Western Mountains in 1837.