Centropyge fisheri was first formally described as Holocanthus fisheri in 1904 by the American ichthyologist John Otterbein Snyder (1867-1943) with the type locality given as off Diamond Head on Oahu in Hawaii. The specific name honours the zoologist Walter Kenrick Fisher (1878-1953) of Stanford University. Within the genus Centropyge this species is considered, by some authorities, to be in the subgenus Xiphypops. C. fisheri was considered to be restricted to Hawaii but the more widespread C. flavicauda is now considered to be synonymous with it.
