Acanthomorpha was named by Rosen (1973). It is extant. Its type is Ferrifronsidae.

It was reranked as the unranked clade Acanthomorpha by Grande (1988), Murray (1996), Arratia and Chorn (1998), Forey et al. (2003), Gottfried et al. (2006), Davesne et al. (2017); it was reranked as the unranked clade Acanthomorphata by Betancur et al. (2013), van der Laan (2019).

It was assigned to Euteleostei by Grande (1988), Murray (1996); to Neoteleostei by Arratia and Chorn (1998); to Osteichthyes by Sepkoski (2002); to Euteleosteii by Forey et al. (2003); to Teleostei by Gottfried et al. (2006); to Teleostei by Davesne et al. (2017); and to Ctenosquamata by Nolf and Dockery (1990), Betancur et al. (2013), van der Laan (2019).