The genus name "Trachycephalus" comes from the Greek word "Trachy" for "rough" and "cephalus" for "head." The species name "dibernardoi" is for the last name of the frog scientist Marcos Di Bernardo. The other scientists named the frog after him because he found so much knowledge about the frogs and other amphibians of Río Grande del Sur. Di-Bernardo was a teacher of zoology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Río Grande do Sul (PUCRS). He and the other scientists caught the first sample frog. Together, they wrote the book "Pró-Mata: Anfíbios da Serra Gaúcha, Sul do Brasil", or "Amphibians of Serra Gaucha" in English. In 2006, Di Bernardo died of skin cancer when he was 42 years old.