The Eurasian or common whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), also known as the white-rumped whimbrel in North America, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic Asia and Europe as far south as Scotland. This species and the Hudsonian whimbrel have recently been split, although some taxonomic authorities still consider them to be conspecific. The Eurasian whimbrel was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Scolopax phaeopus. It is now placed with the curlews in the genus Numenius that was introduced by the French ornithologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The genus name Numenius is from Ancient Greek noumenios, a bird mentioned by Hesychius. It is associated with the curlews because it appears to be derived from neos, "new" and mene "moon", referring to the crescent-shaped bill. The specific epithet phaeopus is the Medieval Latin name for the bird, from Ancient Greek phaios, "dusky" and pous, "foot". The English name "whimbrel" is imitative of the bird's call.