Captorhinomorpha was named by Watson (1917).

It was replaced with Captorhiniformes by Hay (1930); it was reranked as the superfamily Captorhinomorpha by Kuhn (1946); it was reranked as the order Captorhinomorpha by Olson and Beerbower (1953), Huene (1954), Seltin (1959), Olson (1962), Olson and Barghusen (1962), Kuhn (1966), Olson (1966), Olson (1970), Haubold (1971) and Haubold (1974); it was reranked as the subclass Captorhinomorpha by Ivakhnenko (2008); it was reranked as the unranked clade Captorhinomorpha by Gardiner (1982), Martens et al. (2005) and deBraga et al. (2019).

It was assigned to Reptiliomorphoidea by Huene (1954); to Captorhina by Seltin (1959) and Olson and Barghusen (1962); to Cotylosauria by Kuhn (1966); to Anapsida by Olson (1966) and Olson (1970); to Cotylosauria by Haubold (1971) and Haubold (1974); to Cotylosauria by Watson (1917), Romer (1945), Kuhn (1946), Stovall (1950), Haughton and Brink (1954), Lewis and Vaughn (1965), Baird and Carroll (1967), Carroll (1967), Carroll (1969), Cox (1969), Carroll and Gaskill (1971), Daly (1973) and Heaton (1979); to Amniota by Gardiner (1982); to Captorhinida by Carroll (1988); to Reptilia by Martens et al. (2005) and Ivakhnenko (2008); and to Eureptilia by Olson and Beerbower (1953), Olson (1962) and deBraga et al. (2019).