'antirrhinum' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'antirrhinon', where 'anti-' meant 'against' or 'opposite' and 'rhis' (rhin-) meant 'nose'.

'antirrhinum' was adopted into Neo-Latin as the botanical name 'Antirrhinum' (used in scientific Latin) and was then taken into modern English directly from this Latin form as the name for the genus.

Initially it referred to the idea of being 'nose-like' or 'snout-like'; over time the term came to be used specifically for the plants whose flowers resemble a snout — the modern botanical/genus name.