Taperidae was named by Gray (1821) [also attributed to Burnett 1830]. It is extant. Its type is Tapirus. It was considered monophyletic by Colbert (2005).

It was reranked as the tribe Tapirina by Gray (1825), Bonaparte (1850); it was corrected as Tapiridae by Cope (1881), Flower (1883), Cope (1889), Flower and Lydekker (1891), Ameghino (1902), Hay (1902), Scott (1913), Cattoi (1957), Radinsky (1963), Kurten and Anderson (1980), Schoch (1984), Carroll (1988), Prothero and Schoch (1989), Nowak (1991), Holbrook (1999), Sach and Heizmann (2001), Colbert (2005), Hulbert and Whitmore (2006), Hulbert (2010), Holanda et al. (2011), Eshelman et al. (2018).

It was assigned to Trichenae by Gray (1821); to Elephantidae by Gray (1825); to Rhinocerotidae by Bonaparte (1850); to Perissodactyla by Cope (1889); to Perissodactyla by Flower and Lydekker (1891); to Ungulata by Ameghino (1902); to Chelodactyla by Scott (1913); to Tapiroidea by Hay (1902), Cattoi (1957), Radinsky (1963), Schoch (1984), Carroll (1988), Prothero and Schoch (1989), Holbrook (1999), Colbert (2005), Holanda et al. (2011); and to Perissodactyla by Cope (1881), Flower (1883), Kurten and Anderson (1980), Nowak (1991), Sach and Heizmann (2001), Hulbert and Whitmore (2006), Hulbert (2010), Eshelman et al. (2018).