The species was named by Philip Miller (1691 - December 18, 1771) who was a botanist of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1721 until shortly before his death. He wrote The Gardener's and Florists Dictionary or a Complete System of Horticulture (1724) and The Gardener's Dictionary containing the Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen Fruit and Flower Garden, which first appeared in 1731 in an impressive folio and passed through numerous expanding editions.
Miller corresponded with other botanists, and obtained plants from all over the world, many of which he cultivated for the first time in England. His knowledge of living plants was unsurpassed in the breadth in his lifetime. He trained William Aiton, who later became head gardener at Kew, and William Forsyth, after whom Forsythia was named.
The standard author abbreviation Mill. is applied to species he described.