The lesser gurnard was first formally described in 1904 as Trigla quekketi by the English zoologist Charles Tate Regan with the type locality given as the coast of Natal in South Africa.

The specific name honours John Frederick Whitlie Quekett, a conchologist and the curator of the Durban Natural History Museum who gave the type of this species to the British Museum (Natural History).

[2] The lesser gurnard is found in the southwestern Indian Ocean from Maputo Bay in Mozambique along the coast of South Africa and just into the southeastern Atlantic Ocean at Table Bay in the Western Cape.

[2] Over much of its range this species can be rare, however, it is thought to be the commonest and most numerous gurnard on the Agulhas Bank.

[6] This species is iteroparous, i.e. spawning occurs all year with a peak in the spring and in the late summer months.