Catawba people
The name derives from the Muscogee name for the tree, "kutuhlpa" meaning "winged head" and is unrelated to the name of the Catawba people. The spellings "Catalpa" and "Catalpah" were used by Mark Catesby between 1729 and 1732, and Carl Linnaeus published the tree's name as "Bignonia catalpa" in 1753. Giovanni Antonio Scopoli established the genus "Catalpa" in 1777.