'antrostomus' originates from New Latin and ultimately from Ancient Greek, specifically from 'antron' and 'stoma', where 'antron' meant 'cave' and 'stoma' meant 'mouth'.

'antrostomus' was formed in New Latin for use in scientific taxonomy from the Ancient Greek roots 'antron' + 'stoma' and came into modern scientific usage as the genus name Antrostomus.

Initially the elements referred literally to 'cave' and 'mouth' in Greek; over time the combined term became a taxonomic name applied to a group of nightjars rather than a literal description.