No further subspecies or varieties of "B. prionotes" have been described, and it has no taxonomic synonyms. Its only nomenclatural synonym is "Sirmuellera prionotes" (Lindl.) Kuntze, which arose from Otto Kuntze's unsuccessful 1891 attempt to transfer "Banksia" into the new name "Sirmuellera". When Carl Meissner published his infrageneric arrangement of "Banksia" in 1856, he placed "B. prionotes" in section "Eubanksia" because its inflorescence is a spike rather than a domed head, and in series "Salicinae", a large series that is now considered quite heterogeneous. This series was discarded in the 1870 arrangement of George Bentham; instead, "B. prionotes" was placed in section "Orthostylis", which Bentham defined as consisting of those "Banksia" species with flat leaves with serrated margins, and rigid, erect styles that "give the cones after the flowers have opened a different aspect". In 1981, Alex George published a revised arrangement that placed "B. prionotes" in the subgenus "Banksia" because of its flower spike, section "Banksia" because its styles are straight rather than hooked, and the series "Crocinae", a new series of four closely related species, all with bright orange perianths and pistils.