 The red-winged fairywren was officially described by ornithologist John Gould in 1837, who derived the bird's specific name derived from the Latin term elegans' elegant '. He gave its location as the East Coast, but realised his error after further collections by John Gilbert from Southwestern Australia. Amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews described birds from the southern karri forests as subspecies warreni in 1916 on the basis of darker female plumage. However, others have not observed this subsequently and the consensus is that no separate subspecies are recognized. In fact there is little variation in size or colour within the species between populations or individuals.
