Specimens of "B. nobilis" were first collected in the 1830s by James Drummond from the vicinity of the Swan River Colony. The species was published under the name "Dryandra nobilis" by John Lindley in his 1840 "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony", where he referred to it as "a most splendid plant in the way of "D. longifolia" and "tenuifolia", with leaves from a foot to a foot and half long". Lindley did not specify his type material, and there is no type at the University of Cambridge Herbarium, where most of Lindley's type specimens are lodged. However most of "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony" is based upon the collections of Drummond, and one of Drummond's specimens has since been selected as lectotype for the species. Lindley also proffered no etymology for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it comes from the Latin "nobilis" ("noble, imposing") in reference to the purportedly noble appearance of the plant.