Lesser kudu classified under the genus "Tragelaphus" in family Bovidae. It was first described by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1869. The generic name, "Tragelaphus", derives from Greek word "tragos", meaning a male goat, and "elaphos", which means a deer, while the specific name "imberbis" comes from the Latin term meaning unbearded, referring to this kudu's lack of mane. The vernacular name kudu (or koodoo) could have originated either from the Afrikaans "koedoe" or the Khoikhoi "kudu". The term "lesser" denotes the smaller size of this antelope as compared to the greater kudu. In 1912, the genus "Ammelaphus" was established for
Lesser kudu just the lesser kudu by American zoologist Edmund Heller, the type species being "A. strepsiceros". However, the lesser kudu is now placed in "Tragelaphus". In 2005, Sandi Willows-Munro (of the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and colleagues carried out a mitochondrial analysis of the nine "Tragelaphus" species. mtDNA and nDNA data were compared. The results showed that the tribe Tragelaphini is monophyletic with the lesser kudu basal in the phylogeny, followed by the nyala ("T. angasii"). On the basis of mitochondrial data, the lesser kudu separated from its sister clade around 13.7 million years ago. However, the nuclear data show that lesser