In 1931 and 1932, John Willis Stovall uncovered remains of a large theropod near Kenton in Cimarron County, Oklahoma in layers of the late Kimmeridgian. In 1941, these were named "Saurophagus maximus" by Stovall in an article by journalist Grace Ernestine Ray. The generic name is derived from Greek σαυρος, ', "lizard", φάγειν, ', "to eat", with the compound meaning of "lizard eater". The specific epithet "maximus" means "the largest" in Latin. Because the naming article did not contain a description, the name remained a "nomen nudum". In 1987, Spencer George Lucas erroneously made OMNH 4666, a tibia, the lectotype, unaware that "Saurophagus" was a "nomen nudum".