Revised 18 Sept. 2023
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Hepsetus Swainson 1838 etymology not explained, probably from the ancient Greek hepsētós (Gr. ἑψητός), a small fish boiled for human consumption (e.g., the anchovy Anchoa hepsetus); however, name is also used for toothy, pike-like piscivores, perhaps alluding to the Greek poet Archippus (late 5th-century BC), who wrote: “An hepsetus fell in with an anchovy / And quick devoured him,” and/or to the ecologically convergent characid Oligosarcus hepsetus (Cuvier 1829) from South America

Hepsetus cuvieri (Castelnau 1861) in honor of Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the three zoologists (including Dumeril and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire) whom Castelnau called his “masters” (translation); Cuvier also described the genus (Alestidae: Hydrocynus) to which this species was presumed to be related

Hepsetus kingsleyae Decru, Vreven & Snoeks 2013 in honor of writer and explorer Mary Henrietta Kingsley (1862–1900), who collected several species of fishes from the Ogowe Basin in Gabon, including a few specimens of Hepsetus

Hepsetus lineatus (Pellegrin 1926) Latin for lined, presumably referring to “very crisp brown longitudinal lines between each series of scales” (translation)

Hepsetus microlepis (Boulenger 1901) micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; lepís (Gr. λεπίς), scale, referring to its smaller, more numerous scales compared with H. odoe

Hepsetus occidentalis Decru, Snoeks & Vreven 2013 Latin for western, the westernmost species of the genus

Hepsetus odoe (Bloch 1794) local name for this species in Guinea (now Republic of Guinea), Africa; according to Jubb (Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa, 1967), odoe refers to its numerous teeth