'aspidospermine' originates from the New Latin botanical name 'Aspidosperma' (the plant genus) combined with the chemical suffix '-ine', where the genus name 'Aspidosperma' comes from Greek 'aspis' meaning 'shield' and 'sperma' meaning 'seed', and the suffix '-ine' denotes an alkaloid or basic nitrogenous compound.

'aspidospermine' was formed by taking the New Latin genus name 'Aspidosperma' and adding the chemical/alkaloid-forming suffix '-ine', producing the modern English chemical name 'aspidospermine'.

Initially associated with the botanical genus name meaning 'shield-seed', the term evolved to denote a specific chemical alkaloid isolated from plants of that genus.