This species is found in the deeper waters of the southern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Gigantactis meadi was first formally described in 1981 by Erik Bertelsen, Theodore W. Pietsch and Robert J. Lavenberg with its type locality given as the southwestern Indian Ocean at 34°14'S, 64°56'E, or 33°53'S, 64°55'E, Anton Bruun station 352A, from a depth of 0–350 m (0–1,148 ft).

[5] Gigantactis meadi is a member of the genus Giganactis, the name of which is a combination of gigantos, meaning "giant", with actis, which means "ray", an allusion to the unusually long illicium of the genus's type species, G. vanhoeffeni.

The specific name honours Giles W. Mead, a biology professor at Harvard University, deep sea explorer and ichthyologist, for being chief scientist the expedition it was collected on and for his overall contributions to ichthyology.

[6] Gigantactis meadi is a plain black whipnose angler that has a comparatively short illicium with a tuft of white filaments at its base and short filaments along the length of the rear of the illicium.