No one is really sure of where or when the first humpback whales came from.
Some evidence points toward the Atlantic Ocean west of southern Europe and Northern Africa.
Although O. Fabricius named the whale in 1780 a more modern name was given in 1781 by G.H. Borowski Balaena novaengliae. The genus Balaena was chenged to Megoptera in 1932. The Sierra Club handbook of Whales and Dolphins 3.