Nepenthes hurrelliana was known to botanists for some time prior to its description, although authors differed as to its identity, with most treating it as either a form of N. veitchii, a form of N. maxima, or a natural hybrid. In 1988, Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb published an illustration of a N. hurrelliana specimen from Mount Murud under the name N. veitchii × N. fusca. However, in their 1996 monograph, Pitcher-Plants of Borneo, the authors treated it as an undescribed species, Nepenthes sp.. The taxon was also listed as an undescribed species, Nepenthes sp. B, in Charles Clarke's Nepenthes of Borneo (1997) and Hugo Steiner's (2002).