Massospondylus was named by Owen (1854). Its type is Massospondylus carinatus. It is the type genus of Massospondylidae.

It was assigned to Lacertia by Owen (1854); to Amphicoelia by Owen (1860), Owen (1861); to Reptilia by Fischer (1870); to Zanclodontidae by Zittel (1890); to Anchisauridae by Nopcsa (1901); to Dinosauria by Broom (1909); to Dinosauria by Hay (1910); to Theropoda by Broom (1913); to Allosauridae by Huene (1933); to Yunnanosauridae by Young (1942); to Thecodontosauridae by Huene (1908), Huene (1909), Haughton and Brink (1954), Romer (1956), Tatarinov (1964), Romer (1966), Charig (1967), Bonaparte (1969), Ellenberger (1974); to Prosauropoda by Kuhn (1939), Bakker and Galton (1974); to Sauropodomorpha by Benton (1990); to Anchisauridae by Lydekker (1888), Lydekker (1890), Huene (1902), von Zittel (1911), Van Hoepen (1920), Van Hoepen (1920), Lull (1924), Nopcsa (1928), Ellenberger (1970), Steel (1970), Olsen and Galton (1984), Carroll (1988), Bandyopadhyay (1999); to Plateosauria by Galton and Upchurch (2004); to Plateosauridae by Galton (1976), Galton and Cluver (1976), Anderson and Cruickshank (1978), Heerden (1979), Russell (1984), Attridge et al. (1985), Battail (1986), Bandyopadhyay and Sengupta (2006); to Sauropodomorpha by Barrett (2009); and to Massospondylidae by Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Haughton (1924), Padian (1997), Sereno (1998), Sereno (1999), Sues et al. (2004), Knoll (2005), Upchurch et al. (2007), Smith and Pol (2007), Martínez (2009), Yates (2010), Apaldetti et al. (2011), Novas et al. (2011), Otero and Pol (2013), Apaldetti et al. (2013), McPhee et al. (2015), Chapelle et al. (2019).