Baryonychidae was named by Charig and Milner (1986).

It was reranked as the subfamily Baryonychinae by Sereno et al. (1998), Buffetaut and Ouaja (2002), Holtz et al. (2004), Sánchez-Hernández et al. (2007), Naish and Martill (2007), Buffetaut (2007) and Carrano (2009).

It was assigned to Theropoda by Charig and Milner (1986) and Charig and Milner (1990); to Carnosauria by Viera and Torres (1995); to Spinosauroidea by Charig and Milner (1997) and Rauhut (2003); and to Spinosauridae by Sereno et al. (1998), Buffetaut and Ouaja (2002), Holtz et al. (2004), Sánchez-Hernández et al. (2007), Naish and Martill (2007), Buffetaut (2007) and Carrano (2009).