The opening is named after the Portuguese chess author Pedro Damiano (1480–1544), despite the fact that he condemned it as weak. In 1847, Howard Staunton wrote of 2...f6, "This move occurs in the old work of Damiano, who gives some ingenious variations on it. Lopez, and later authors, have hence entitled it 'Damiano's Gambit'."[6] Instead, Staunton's contemporary George Walker more logically reserved the term "Damiano Gambit" for the knight sacrifice played by White on the third move: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5.[7] Staunton referred to [1.e4 e5 2.Nf3] 2...Nc6, a highly respected move then and now, as "Damiano's defence to the K. Kt.'s opening".[8]

The Damiano Defence is never seen today in top-level play. The greatest player to play the Damiano in serious master competition was Chigorin. As noted above, he played the 3...Qe7 line in a game against Schiffers at St. Petersburg 1897. Chigorin lost his queen on move 10 (see diagram), but Schiffers played so weakly that Chigorin later missed a brilliant forced mate and only escaped when Schiffers agreed to a draw in a winning position.[9] Robert McGregor played the Damiano in a 1964 simultaneous exhibition against Bobby Fischer, essaying 3...Qe7 4.Nf3 d5 5.d3 dxe4 6.dxe4 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Bf5, and drew, although Fischer did not play the best moves.