Balaenopteroidea was named by Gray (1868).

It was reranked as the suborder Balaenopteroidea by Gray (1871); it was reranked as the unranked clade Balaenopteroidea by Bisconti and Bosselaers (2016), Berta (2017); it was considered a nomen dubium by McKenna and Bell (1997).

It was assigned to Mysticete by Gray (1868), Gray (1871); to Mysticeti by Bianucci and Landini (2007), Rice (2009); to Chaeomysticeti by Mitchell (1989), Steeman (2007), Steeman (2010); to Balaenomorpha by Geisler and Sanders (2003), Hampe and Ritsche (2011); to Thalassotherii by Bisconti and Bosselaers (2016), Berta (2017); to Mysticeti by Sanders and Barnes (2002), Dooley et al. (2004), Gingerich (2005), Deméré et al. (2005), Solis-Añorve et al. (2021); and to Plicogulae by Geisler et al. (2011), Marx and Fordyce (2015), Marx et al. (2016), Marx et al. (2016), Buono et al. (2017), Fleming et al. (2022).