Balaena cuvierii was named by Fischer (1829) [The type specimen of Protororqualus cuvier was destroyed in World War II Bisconti, 2007.]. It is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Monte Pulgnasco, which is in a Piacenzian carbonate limestone in the Monte Giogo Formation of Italy. It is the type species of Protororqualus.

It was recombined as Balaenoptera cuvierii by Boitard (1844), Kellogg (1928), Deméré (1986) and Deméré et al. (2005); it was recombined as Rorqualus cuvieri by Pictet (1853); it was recombined as Plesiocetus cuvierii by Van Beneden and Gervais (1868); it was recombined as Cetotherium (Cetotheriophanes) cuvierii by Brandt (1873); it was synonymized subjectively with Plesiocetus cortesii by Van Beneden (1875); it was recombined as Plesiocetus cuvieri by Trouessart (1898); it was recombined as Balaenoptera cuvieri by Trouessart (1904) and Kellogg (1931); it was recombined as Cetotherium cuvieri by Cuscani Politi (1961); it was recombined as Balaenoptera acutorostrata cuvierii by Caretto (1970), Pilleri (1987) and Pavsic and Mikuz (1996); it was considered an invalid subgroup of Mysticeti by Bosselaers and Post (2010); it was considered a nomen dubium by Bisconti (2009); it was recombined as Protororqualus cuvieri by Bisconti (2007), Marx (2011), Bisconti and Francou (2014) and Bisconti and Bosselaers (2020).