Ornithogalum belongs to the Hyacinthaceae that ranks among the 20 largest families in the Cape Flora. The genus in the traditional sense contains about 120 species with a distribution in Africa, Europe and Western Asia. About 114 of the species occur in southern Africa and 38 of these in the Northern and Western Cape Provinces .

Ornithogalum thyrsoides was described and illustrated in 1776 by the Dutch born botanist Jacquin, who settled in Vienna and became known as the Austrian Linnaeus. The painting appears in Hortus botanicus vindobonensis 3:17-18, Tab.28 (1776) which can be seen on Missouri Botanical Garden's rare books site.www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/page.asp?relation=QK98J3151770V3&identifier=0110.

Ornithogalum means 'bird's milk' and is derived from the Greek words ornis meaning 'bird' and gala meaning 'milk', in reference to the white flowers. 'Bird's Milk' was frequently used by the Romans to indicate something wonderful (Smith, 1966).

The specific epithet thyrsoides is derived from the term thryse presumably in reference to the compact flower heads. The term is actually a misnomer as the flower heads in the species are not branched as in a thyrse, but are arranged close together in a raceme or loosely in a corymb.

The Afrikaans vernacular name tjienkerientjee is the simulation of the chink sound made when fresh stalks are rubbed against one another and is based on the name given by Thunberg in 1772 as tinkerintees. Chincherinchee is the English translation of the Afrikaans name. Both names were in use in the eighteenth century. The species was introduced to gardens in Holland before 1700 and is known to cultivation in Europe from about 1750.

The common name star-of-Bethlehem was used for the European species Ornithogalum umbellatum in reference to the spreading tepals, and was adopted for O. thyrsoides (Smith, 1966).