This animal's scientific name, like most scientific names, sounds authoritative and informative. But... not so much. "Dipsas" is derived from the Greek word for "thirst", because the bite of these snakes was believed to cause intense thirst (nonsense). And "andiana" is from the Latin for "Andean", referring of course to the Andes mountains, in which most of these snakes do not live. Their range barely includes the western slopes of the Andes, and extends westward to the ocean.