Its species name was given it in honour of the Scottish naturalist Archibald Menzies, who noted it during George Vancouver's voyage of exploration.
In 1792, the island was discovered by Lieutenant William Robert Broughton, commander of the Royal Navy survey brig HMS Chatham, who named it Menzies, after the botanist of his ship Archibald Menzies and naming Vancouver after his commander George Vancouver.
Archibald Prize | Robert Menzies | John Archibald Wheeler | Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell | Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery | Archibald MacLeish | Archibald Geikie | Menzies Campbell | Menzies | Archibald Menzies | Archibald McIndoe | Archibald Cox | Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford | Archibald Wavell | Archibald Leitch | Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus | Stewart Menzies | Gavin Menzies | Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso | Archibald Prentice | Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton | Archibald Keightley Nicholson | Archibald Hill | Archibald Garrod | Archibald Douglas, Parson of Douglas | Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas | Archibald Douglas | Archibald Constable | Archibald Blair | Alan Archibald |
The first known botanical collection of Adenanthos was made by Archibald Menzies during the September 1791 visit of the Vancouver Expedition to King George Sound on the south coast of Western Australia.
The genus was named after the Scottish-Canadian botanist William Fraser Tolmie, while the species name refers to Archibald Menzies, the Scottish naturalist for the Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795).