'ardea' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'ardea', where it meant 'heron'.

'ardea' was a Classical Latin word meaning 'heron'; in the 18th century Carl Linnaeus adopted 'Ardea' as the formal scientific genus name for certain large herons, and the term entered modern scientific English usage in that taxonomic sense.

Initially, it meant 'heron' in everyday Latin; over time it has come to be used primarily as the formal taxonomic name for a genus of herons in scientific contexts.