Centropogon was first described as a genus of fishes in 1860 by the German-born British ichthyologist Albert Günther. The genus was created for Apistus australis, which had originally been described as Cottus australis in 1790 by George Shaw in John White's Journal of a voyage to New South Wales.[1] The genus is included in the subfamily Tetraroginae within the Scorpaenidae in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World[2] however other authorities place that subfamily within the stonefish family Synanceiidae,[1] while other authorities classify this subfamily as a family in its own right.[3] The genus name is a compound of kentron, meaning a "thorn" or "spine", and "pogon", which means "beard". This name was not explained by Günther but is thought to allude to the many spines on the preorbital and preoperculum, having some similarity to a spiny “beard”.[4]
