Rabdodon was named by Matheron (1869). Its type is Rabdodon priscum. It is the type genus of Rhabdodontidae.

It was synonymized subjectively with Mochlodon by Campbell (1966), Charig (1967), Weishampel and Weishampel (1983); it was corrected as Rhabdodon by Matheron (1869), Zittel (1890), Van Den Broeck (1900), Depéret (1900), Nopcsa (1901), Nopcsa (1902), Huene (1909), von Zittel (1911), Nopcsa (1915), Huene (1927), Nopcsa (1928), Huene (1934), Huene (1934), Lapparent (1947), Lapparent (1948), Romer (1956), Lapparent et al. (1957), Bataller (1960), Tatarinov (1964), Kuhn (1964), Romer (1966), Thulborn (1974), Taquet (1975), McIntosh (1981), Clottes and Raynaud (1983), Brinkmann (1984), Ginsburg (1986), Casanovas et al. (1987), Brinkmann (1988), Carroll (1988), Cousin et al. (1989), Norman and Weishampel (1990), Buffetaut et al. (1991), Weishampel et al. (1991), Buffetaut (1992), Grigorescu (1992), Le Loeuff et al. (1995), Currie and Padian (1997), Sereno (1997), Pereda Suberbiola and Galton (1997), Le Loeuff (1998), Pereda-Suberbiola and Sanz (1999), Sanz (2000), Laurent et al. (2001), Vremir and Codrea (2002), Weishampel et al. (2003), Norman (2004), Sachs and Hornung (2006), Pereda Suberbiola and Galton (2007), Butler et al. (2008), McDonald et al. (2010), Rich et al. (2010), McDonald (2012), Zheng et al. (2013), Sanz et al. (2014), Dieudonné et al. (2016), Godefroit et al. (2017), Madzia et al. (2018), Herne et al. (2019), Bell et al. (2019), Párraga and Prieto-Márquez (2019), Dieudonné et al. (2020), Verdú et al. (2021), Czepiński and Madzia (2025).

It was assigned to Dinosauria by Matheron (1869); to Dinosauria by Matheron (1869); to Hypsilophodontidae by Nopcsa (1901); to Trachodontidae by Huene (1909), von Zittel (1911); to Kalodontidae by Nopcsa (1902), Huene (1927); to Camptosaurinae by Nopcsa (1928), Huene (1934), Huene (1934); to Camptosauridae by Nopcsa (1915), Bataller (1960); to Ornithopoda by Depéret (1900), Buffetaut (1992); to Euornithopoda by Weishampel et al. (1991), Le Loeuff et al. (1995); to Hypsilophodontidae by Brinkmann (1988), Buffetaut et al. (1991), Currie and Padian (1997); to Ornithopoda by Le Loeuff (1998); to Iguanodontidae by Zittel (1890), Sauvage (1898), Van Den Broeck (1900), Lapparent (1947), Lapparent (1948), Romer (1956), Lapparent et al. (1957), Tatarinov (1964), Kuhn (1964), Romer (1966), Thulborn (1974), Taquet (1975), McIntosh (1981), Clottes and Raynaud (1983), Brinkmann (1984), Ginsburg (1986), Casanovas et al. (1987), Carroll (1988), Cousin et al. (1989), Grigorescu (1992), Sanz (2000), Laurent et al. (2001); to Iguanodontia by Vremir and Codrea (2002); to Iguanodontia by Norman and Weishampel (1990), Sereno (1997), Pereda Suberbiola and Galton (1997), Pereda-Suberbiola and Sanz (1999), Norman (2004); to Iguanodontia by Zheng et al. (2013); and to Rhabdodontidae by Weishampel et al. (2003), Sachs and Hornung (2006), Pereda Suberbiola and Galton (2007), Butler et al. (2008), McDonald et al. (2010), Rich et al. (2010), McDonald (2012), Sanz et al. (2014), Dieudonné et al. (2016), Godefroit et al. (2017), Madzia et al. (2018), Herne et al. (2019), Bell et al. (2019), Párraga and Prieto-Márquez (2019), Dieudonné et al. (2020), Verdú et al. (2021), Czepiński and Madzia (2025).