The specific name adolfifriderici honours Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, leader of the German Central Africa Expedition in 1907–1908,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Kinyongia adolfifriderici, p. 2). during which the types were collected.
