The genus name Jiangxisaurus, refers to the Jiangxi Province of southern China. The specific name ganzhouensis, is derived from Gangzhou, the locality where the specimen was discovered. Jiangxisaurus was described and named by Xuefang Wei, Hanyong Pu, Li Xu, Di Liu, and Junchang Lu in 2013 and the type species is Jiangxisaurus ganzhouensis.