The genus name Aloidendron is a combination of Aloe and dendron - the latter referring to their tree like habit.  Aloe is derived from the Arabic, `Alloch' and translated as `Allal' in Greek and Hebrew, literally meaning bitter or bitter sap, referring to aloe sap. The species was named by South African botanist Louise Guthrie (1879-1966) in 1928 to honor Neville S. Pillans, the well-known Cape botanist who first collected it at Cornell's Kop in the Richtersveld. The common name comes from a translation of the Afrikaans name `reuse kokerboom' which translates as giant quiver tree, alluding to its grotesque size and the hollowed stems of a related species ( Aloidendron dichotoma ) that were used to make quivers for arrows. An alternate common name sometimes seen but deemed politically incorrect and insulting is bastard quiver tree which makes reference to the Richtersveld region being one of the ‘baster states' (racially mixed people) of South Africa that was populated by biracial descendants of the indigenous African people and European settlers.

Mr Neville Stuart Pillans (1884–1964) from Rosebank, Cape Town was the only son of the agriculturist and horticulturist Eustace Pillans (1850–1919). He went to England to train in agriculture at the University of Cambridge, but never graduated due to ill health. His father was interested in gardening and enthusiastically collected and grew succulents at his Rosebank residence from where he communicated his collections to N.E. Brown at Kew. This resulted in several new species being described. Neville Pillans, who later joined the staff of the oldest herbarium in South Africa (est. 1865), namely the Bolus Herbarium in Cape Town, took over his collections and expanded them further to become one of the most eminent collectors of Stapeliads.

In 1910, Neville Pillans published in the Agricultural Journal advocating for the establishment of a botanical garden for indigenous flora at the Cape. He subsequently assisted Prof. H.H.W. Pearson in choosing the site for what is now the world-renowned Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Pearson was the first director of Kirstenbosch. Interestingly, Neville Pillans also accompanied Prof. Robert Harold Compton (second director of the then National Botanical Gardens, 1919–1953) in 1920 on an exploratory journey across the Western Karoo in search for a suitable area for the establishment of a succulent Botanical Garden. This, Prof. Compton believed, could serve as an ‘outstation' or ‘substation' to Kirstenbosch for cultivating, studying and conserving arid and semi-arid flora as these plants were unsuitable to Kirstenbosch mainly due to its high rainfall. Pillans and Compton decided on a place called Whitehill near Matjiesfontein north of the Witteberg Mountain Range and the Karoo Gardens was established in 1921, making it the second oldest botanical garden of the present South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

Neville Pillans was thus instrumental in choosing the sites of two very important botanical gardens and such was his interest in South African botanical taxonomy that he published monographs on Restionaceae, Bruniaceae, Phylica, Agatashosma and Metalasia. Apart from Aloidendron pillansii, he is also commemorated in the genus Pillansia, as well as the species Carraluma pillansii, Eucomis pillansii, Duvalia pillansii, Huernia pillansii, Stapelia pillansii and Erica nevillei.