The rufous-breasted accentor was described by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1843 from a specimen collected in Nepal. He coined the binomial nameAccentor strophiatus.[2] The specific epithetstrophiatus/strophiata is from Latinstrophium "breast-band".[3] The rufous-breasted accentor is now placed in the genusPrunella that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1816.[4]
^Jobling, J.A. (2019). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 12 March 2019.