In 2019, the type species Antarctanax shackletoni was named and described by Brandon Robert Peecook, Roger Malcolm Harris Smith and Christian Alfred Sidor. The generic name combines a reference to Antarctica — itself derived from Greek anti, opposite of, and arktikos, of the Bear — with a Greek anax, ruler, a reference to the Archosauria, the Ruling Reptiles. The specific name honours Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer who named the Beardmore Glacier which runs along the Graphite Peak.