The painted moki was first formally described as Cheilodactylus ephippium in 1916 by the Australian ichthyologists Allan Riverstone McCulloch and Edgar Ravenswood Waite with the type locality given as Norfolk Island.

[2] The specific name epphipium means "saddle", an allusion which McCulloch and Waite did not explain but may be a reference to the bar behind the head.

[3] The true taxonomic relationships of the taxa traditionally classified under the family Cheilodactylidae have been considered uncertain and to have been poorly supported by some authorities over a long period of time.

There is a wide light coloured oblique bar running from the nape to behind the base of the pectoral fin and joining with the pale underside.

A series of light coloured spots or a wide pale stripe run along the back from the base of the soft rayed part of the dorsal-fin.