Kampholophos was named by Rensberger (1969) [Carroll (1988) introduced this misspelling of Kampholophos. Sepkoski's age data: T Mi-m Sepkoski's reference number: 746]. Its type is Kampholophos serrulus. It was considered monophyletic by Marx et al. (2016).

It was assigned to Iniidae by Rensberger (1969); to Odontoceti by Barnes (1977); to Kampholophinae by Barnes (1985), Ichishima et al. (1995), McKenna and Bell (1997); to Cetacea by Sepkoski (2002); to Kentriodontinae by de Muizon (1988), Dawson (1996), Fordyce and de Muizon (2001), Lambert et al. (2005), Kazár and Hampe (2014), Marx et al. (2016); and to Kentriodontidae by Carroll (1988), Benton (1993), Uhen et al. (2008), Berta (2017), Peredo et al. (2018).