Taxonomy and Naming
The brownback trevally is classified within the genus Carangoides, one of a number of groups of fish referred to as jacks and trevallies. Carangoides is further classified in the family Carangidae, itself part of the suborder Percoidei and the order Perciformes; the perch-like fishes.
The species was first scientifically described by an unknown author in a publication entitled 'Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles', in which a chapter was dedicated to fish specimens Raffles had collected. The author is usually presumed to be the English zoologist Edward Turner Bennett, but due to a lack of evidence to support this, his name is placed in parentheses as required by the ICZN code. The species was here published under the name of Caranx praeustus, with the holotype collected from Sumatra, Indonesia. This classification was later changed to the genus Carangoides by Pieter Bleeker, where it has remained. Two junior synonyms have been applied to the species, Caranx ire and Caranx melanostethos, which are invalid under ICZN rules. The species specific epithet praeustus is Latin; meaning "burnt at the tip", in reference to its black dorsal lobe.
In the last revision of the carangids of the Indo-Pacific, William Smith-Vaniz found that the two separate populations have differing gill raker counts and breast squamation, leading him to suggest the possibility of these being two separate species. If further study indicates these are two separate species, the name Carangoides ire should be reinstated, as Georges Cuvier described a fish from this second western Indian Ocean population as Caranx ire.
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