In 1918 Augusto Tapia named the type species Notoceratops Bonarellii.[1] The generic name is derived from Greek notos, "the South", keras, "horn" and ops, "face". The specific name honours Guido Bonarelli who advised Tapia in his study of the find. By present conventions the epithet is spelled bonarellii, thus without a capital B. In many later publications the specific name is misspelled "bonarelli", with a single "i", from the incorrect assumption it would be derived from a Latinised "Bonarell~ius". The fossil, found near the Lago Colhué Huapí in Chubut, was first described by Friedrich von Huene in 1929.