 Acrocanthosaurus is named for its tall neural spines, from the Greek ɑκρɑ / akra ('high'), ɑκɑνθɑ / akantha ('thorn' or'spine') and σɑʊρος / sauros ('lizard'). There is one named species (A. atokensis), which is named after Atoka County in Oklahoma, where the original specimens were found. The name was coined in 1950 by American paleontologists J. Willis Stovall and Wann Langston Jr. Langston had proposed the name "Acracanthus atokaensis" for the genus and species in his unpublished 1947 master's thesis, but the name was changed to Acrocanthosaurus atokensis for formal publication.
