Nectridea was named by Miall (1875). It is not extant.

It was reranked as the order Nectridei by Jaekel (1911); it was corrected as Nectridia by Kuhn (1946); it was reranked as the order Nectridea by Thayer (1985), Carroll (1988), Carroll et al. (1998); it was misspelled as Nectridia by Huene (1954), Olson (1970), Gardiner (1982); it was reranked as the unranked clade Nectridea by Gauthier et al. (1989), Maddin et al. (2012).

It was assigned to Microsauria by Jaekel (1911); to Lepospondyli by Kuhn (1946); to Pseudocentrophori by Huene (1954); to Lepospondyli by Olson (1970); to Lepospondyli by Thayer (1985), Carroll (1988); to Tetrapoda by Gauthier et al. (1989); and to Lepospondyli by Gardiner (1982), Carroll et al. (1998), Maddin et al. (2012).