'ariegite' originates from French, specifically the toponym 'Ariège' (the name of a department/region in southwestern France), where the mineral name was formed by adding the mineralogical suffix '-ite' to the place-name.

'ariegite' was coined in modern scientific usage by adapting the French place-name 'Ariège' into the mineral-name form 'ariegite' in published mineralogical literature in the late 19th to early 20th century.

Initially the root referred simply to the place 'Ariège', but over time the combined form 'ariegite' has come to denote the specific silver–antimony sulfosalt mineral discovered or described from that region.