"Brachyceratops montanensis", the type species, was first discovered in the Two Medicine Formation (Campanian, about 74 million years old) on a Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Teton County in north-central Montana. The original find was made in August 1913 by C. W. Gilmore and his assistant J. Floyd Strayer and was named and shortly described by Gilmore one year later. The generic name is derived from , "brachys", "short", , "keras", "horn" and , "ops", "face", in reference to the short snout. The specific name refers to the provenance from Montana.