1824 work A description of the genus Pinus. Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher erected the genus Sequoia in his 1847 work Synopsis coniferarum, giving the redwood its current binomial name of Sequoia sempervirens. It is unknown how Endlicher derived the name Sequoia. See ''Sequoia'' Etymology.

The redwood is one of three living species, each in its own genus, in the subfamily Sequoioideae.