'argonautid' is formed from 'argonaut' (from Greek 'Argonautēs') with the scientific suffix '-id' (from New Latin '-idae' indicating a member of a family). 'Argonautēs' originally meant 'sailor of the Argo' (the ship of Jason).

'Argonautēs' (Greek) became Latin 'Argonauta', which entered modern European languages as 'argonaut' to name the mollusk; in scientific classification the family name 'Argonautidae' was coined in New Latin, and 'argonautid' developed as an English noun/adjective referring to members of that family.

Initially it referred to a 'sailor of the Argo' in Greek myth, but the term was later applied to the shell-producing cephalopod (argonaut), and 'argonautid' now denotes a member of the family Argonautidae or anything relating to that family.