The Swedish natural historian Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of taxonomy, originally described the smooth hammerhead as Squalus zygaena in the 1758 tenth edition of Systema Naturae, without designating a type specimen. The name was later changed to Sphyrna zygaena. The specific epithet zygaena originates from the Greek word zygòn, meaning yoke, referring to the shape of its head. The Greek name zýgaina had already been used for the hammerhead shark by Aristotle in the second book of his History of Animals. Other common names for this species include common hammerhead, common smooth hammerhead, round-headed hammerhead, or simply hammerhead.