The specific name honours the ichthyologist Canna Maria Louise Popta (1860–1929) who was Curator of Reptiles, Amphibians and Fishes at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden who was one of the earliest workers on Borneo's freshwater fishes and described manty of the specimens collected on the trans-Borneo expeditions which took place between 1893 and 1900.