'Amboina' originates from early European (Portuguese and Dutch) usages, ultimately from the local Malay/Indonesian island name 'Ambon' (the name of the island and settlement).

'Amboina' was recorded in Portuguese and Dutch sources as forms such as 'Amboína', 'Amboine' and Dutch 'Amboyna'; these colonial-era spellings were used in English historical writing and later shortened or regularized to the modern 'Ambon' in many contexts.

Initially, it referred specifically to the island and settlement ('Ambon'); over time the name was also applied to goods associated with the island—most notably the prized burl wood called 'amboyna'—so the term came to denote both place and product.