'Apiales' originates from New Latin used in botanical taxonomy, ultimately based on the genus name 'Apium' (Latin), where 'Apium' referred to a type of celery/parsley.

'Apiales' was formed in modern botanical Latin by applying the order-forming suffix '-ales' to names associated with 'Apium' (via the family name Apiaceae), and came into established use in 19th- and 20th-century botanical classification.

Initially the root referred specifically to the genus 'Apium' (celery/parsley); over time the term 'Apiales' came to denote the broader order containing multiple related families.