It was initially referred to the genus Noronhomys, which is currently known only from the island of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil, but in 2008 Argentinean mammalogist Ulyses Pardiñas established it as the holotype of a new genus and species of rodent in a publication in the Journal of Mammalogy.
In 1999, another rodent from the same group was described: Noronhomys, a recently extinct species from the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.