The type species (holotype) of Mercurana was collected on 18 May 2012 from bushes at the periphery of a temple compound, Arippa, near Kulathupuzha Reserve Forest, Kollam district, Kerala, India. It was a single adult male. Other two adult males (paratypes) were found from the same locality on 12 July 2012. The formal description was published on 17 April 2013 in the journal Zootaxa. The generic name was derived from ‘Mercury' as a tribute to Freddie Mercury, the late singer and lyricist of the British rock band Queen, in combination with the genus name Rana, the most common frog taxa. The scientists chose 'Mercury' because Mercury's vibrant music was inspiring, in the author's own account. Further, Mercury was of Indian-Parsi origin and spent the majority of his childhood in Panchgani, which is located in the northern part of the mountain range from where the frog was discovered. The specific name is a combination of the words Myristica (a genus of the nutmeg family of trees), and palustris, which is Latin for swampy, to indicate the swamp forest habitat dominantly represented by Myristica trees in which the frog lives. The forest is particularly noted for its fragile and threatened habitat type in the Western Ghats.