Cetiosauridae was named by Lydekker (1888).

It was reranked as the subfamily Cetiosaurinae by Romer (1956), Steel (1970), Swinton (1970), Dong et al. (1983), Dong (1990), Dong (1992) and Zhao (1993).

It was assigned to Cetiosauria by Baur (1891); to Saurischia by Cope (1889), Cope (1891) and Cope (1898); to Bothrosauropodidae by Huene (1948); to Sauropoda by Bakker (1986); to Camarasauridae by Swinton (1970), Dong et al. (1983) and Dong (1992); to Brachiosauridae by Romer (1956), Steel (1970), Dong (1990) and Zhao (1993); to Neosauropoda by Upchurch (1995) and Upchurch (1995); to Camarasauroidea by Dong (1998); to Sauropoda by Lydekker (1888), Lydekker (1895), Huene (1908), Huene (1908), Huene (1909), von Zittel (1911), Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Nopcsa (1923), Huene (1927), Huene (1927), Huene (1929), Rozhdestvensky (1977), Galton (1977), Russell (1984), Bonaparte (1986), Carroll (1988), McIntosh (1990), Hunt et al. (1995), Zhang and Chen (1996), Upchurch (1997) and Bonaparte (1999); to Sauropoda by Sauvage (1896), Mansel-Pleydell (1902), Matthew (1915), Lapparent (1947), Delair (1960), Delair (1973), McIntosh (1981) and Chure et al. (2006); and to Eusauropoda by Upchurch et al. (2004), Sánchez-Hernández et al. (2007) and Naish and Martill (2007).