The development of molecular phylogenetic methods showed that the traditional circumscription of Cheilanthes is polyphyletic. Convergent evolution in arid environments is thought to be responsible for widespread homoplasy in the morphological characters traditionally used to classify it and the segregate genera that have sometimes been recognized. On the basis of molecular evidence, Amanda Grusz and Michael D. Windham revived the genus Myriopteris in 2013 for a group of species formerly placed in Cheilanthes. One of these was this species, which reverted to its oldest name, M. rufa. In 2018, Maarten J. M. Christenhusz transferred the species to Hemionitis as H. eatonii, as part of a program to consolidate the cheilanthoid ferns into that genus.
