Original description as Alburnus amabilis:
- Girard, Charles Frederic. 1856. "Researches upon the cyprinoid fishes inhabiting the fresh waters of the United States, west of the Mississippi Valley, from specimens in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 8:165-213 (ffm04542)
Conservation: Notropis amabilis is not evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species.