Proboscidea was named by Illiger (1811). It is extant.

It was reranked as the suborder Proboscidea by Flower and Lydekker (1891) and Andrews (1906); it was reranked as the unranked clade Proboscidea by McKenna and Bell (1997), Shoshani and Tassy (2005) and Gheerbrant (2009); it was reranked as the order Proboscidea by Cope (1889), Gregory (1910), McKenna (1975), Thurmond and Jones (1981), Rasmussen et al. (1990), Waddell et al. (1999), Waddell et al. (2001), Delmer et al. (2006), Seiffert (2007) and Asher and Helgen (2010).

It was assigned to Quadripedes by Gray (1821); to Ungulata by Flower and Lydekker (1891); to Ungulata by Owen (1848), Flower (1883), Cope (1889) and Andrews (1906); to Ungulata by Gregory (1910); to Eutheria by Carroll (1988) and Nowak (1991); to Behemota by McKenna and Bell (1997); to Afrotheria by Madsen et al. (2001); to Mammalia by Thurmond and Jones (1981), Shoshani et al. (1989), Abraczinskas (1993), Shoshani et al. (2006) and Hulbert and Whitmore (2006); to Paenungulata by Rasmussen et al. (1990), Waddell et al. (1999) and Gheerbrant (2009); and to Tethytheria by McKenna (1975), Lambert and Shoshani (1998), Waddell et al. (2001), Shoshani and Tassy (2005), Delmer et al. (2006), Seiffert (2007) and Asher and Helgen (2010).