The rat was described by Robert William Hayman in 1955. It is named after the entomologist, George Henry Evans Hopkins, O.B.E., M.A., F.R.E.S. (1898-1973), who lived and worked in Uganda for many years, and was noted for his researches on three groups of insects: lice, fleas and mosquitoes. Hopkins had collaborated with Hayman and Reginald Ernest Moreau in the publication of “The type-localities of some African mammals” in The Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London in 1946.
Moreau R.E., G.H.E. Hopkins, and R.W. Hayman. 1946. The type-localities of some African mammals. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1946:387-447.
Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London. 1973. Royal Entomological Society of London. [1]. Downloaded 30 June 2012.