The species was first described as "Bovista craniiformis" by Lewis David de Schweinitz in 1832. Elias Fries transferred it to the then newly circumscribed genus "Calvatia" in 1849, setting "Calvatia craniiformis" as the type and only species. Scott Bates and colleagues suggest that the name is synonymous with "Lycoperdon delicatum" published by Miles Joseph Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1873 (not the "L. delicatum" published by Berkeley in 1854), as is "Lycoperdon missouriense" published by William Trelease in 1891. The form "C. craniiformis" f. "gardneri", published by Yosio Kobayasi in 1932 (originally "Lycoperdon gardneri" Berk. 1875), since been elevated to the distinct species "Calvatia gardneri".