In 1843 a skull was recovered from fen deposits at Stamford in Lincolnshire. Richard Owen described it a few years later, placing it near the killer whale on the basis of tooth and skull form but distinct enough to warrant its own name. Nothing about the find suggested a living animal, and the species was catalogued as extinct.
That lasted less than two decades. In 1861 a large group stranded in Kiel Bay in the Baltic, and the animals were matched to Owen's skull. The species has since been recorded in warm oceans worldwide, though it is naturally uncommon and lives mostly far offshore.
The name records the resemblance in the skull, not the behaviour. False killer whales are dolphins that take large fish and squid, and are known for passing prey between group members, including offering fish to divers. They are only distantly related to the orca within the same family.