 The group is named after Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska.Halszkaraptorinae is defined as the most inclusive clade that contains "Halszkaraptor escuilliei" but not "Dromaeosaurus albertensis", "Unenlagia comahuensis", "Saurornithoides mongoliensis" or "Vultur gryphus".The subfamily is diagnosed by their long necks, proximal caudal vertebrae with oriented articular processes (projections of the vertebra fits with an adjacent vertebra) and prominent zygodiapophyseal laminae (plates of bone that form the posterior walls of each vertebra), a flattened ulna with a sharp posterior margin, ilium with a shelf-like supratrochanteric (above the trochanter of the femur) process, metacarpal III shaft transversely as thick as that of metacarpal II, a posterodistal surface on the femoral shaft with an elongate fossa bound by a lateral crest and the proximal half of metatarsal III being unconstricted and markedly convex
anteriorly.