The synomymies and characters of Babylonia spirata (L.), B. valentiana (Sws.), B. ambulacrum (Sow.) and B. borneensis (Sow.) are discussed. A lectotype of Buccinum spiratum L. is selected so as to perpetuate Lamarck’s interpretation of this species. By restricting Schumacher’s name Nassa canaliculata to the first of the two references on which it has been based it is made an objective synonym of Linnaeus’s species.