As with all exoplanets, Kepler-11d is named first for its host star, Kepler-11.
Required follow-up observations were conducted at the Hale and Shane telescopes in California; the W.M. Keck Observatory's Keck I telescope in Hawaii; telescopes at the WIYN, Whipple, and MMT observatories in Arizona; and the Hobby-Eberly and Harlan J. Smith telescopes of west Texas.