Homoeosaurus pulchellus was named by Zittel (1887). Its type specimen is IPHG no. 1887 VI 1, a skeleton (complete skeleton), and it is a compression fossil. Its type locality is Painten, near Kelheim, which is in a Kimmeridgian lagoonal/restricted shallow subtidal lime mudstone in the Painten Formation of Germany.

It was recombined as Kallimodon pulchellus by Zittel (1887), Cocude-Michel (1963); it was misspelled as Homeosaurus pulchellus by Grier (1914); it was recombined as Leptosaurus pulchellus by Fabre (1981), Renesto and Viohl (1997).