Austinite is a member of the adelite-descloizite group, adelite subgroup, the Zn end member of the Cu-Zn series with conichalcite. It is the zinc analogue of cobaltaustinite and nickelaustinite. At one time "brickerite" was thought to be a different species, but it is now considered to be identical to austinite. Austinite is named in honour of Austin Flint Rogers (1877-1957), American mineralogist from Stanford University, California, USA.