Clinocottus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins.

[2] Clinocottus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1861 by the American zoologist Theodore Gill with Oligocottus analis, which had been described in 1858 by Charles Frédéric Girard from Monterey, California, as its only species.

[1][3] Molecular data indicate that this genus is polyphyletic or paraphyletic, it does not constitute a natural assemblage within Cottidae.

[4] Workers have found that the lavender sculpin (Leiocottus hirundo) is the sister taxon to C. analis, a species which is not closely related to C. acuticeps.

In turn, C. acuticeps is determined to be basal to Artedius,[5] or to the clade referred to as Oligocottinae.