In 1999 during an expedition by the University of Alaska, an isolated pachycephalosaur squamosal was unearthed from bluffs on the bank of the Colville River in North Slope Borough, Alaska. Strata (rock layers) deriving from this area come from the latest Campanian-aged (72-71 mya) Prince Creek Formation. The fossil was then deposited in the University of Alaska Museum and described in 2005 by Roland Gangloff and colleagues as belonging to a pachycephalosaurine closely related to, and possibly, Pachycephalosaurus.
However, the next year paleontologist Robert Sullivan described it as a new genus and species, Alaskacephale gangloffi. The genus name comes from Alaska, the state the holotype (name-bearing specimen) was found in, and cephale, from the Greek kephale meaning "head". Its species name is in honor of Gangloff, who published the earlier 2005 description.