The name was originally coined in 1915 for a group of fossil orthopteroids, and largely forgotten until it was resurrected and redefined ("Notoptera Crampton sensu novum") by Engel and Grimaldi in 2004 (after the discovery of living Mantophasmatidae), who recommended to give a single order that includes both the living and fossil representatives of the lineage.

[2] Terry and Whiting in 2005 independently proposed a new name, "Xenonomia", for the same lineage of insects (including the Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea, treated as orders).

[1] The earliest stem-representatives of the group had emerged by the Late Carboniferous, around 320 million years ago.

Early members of the group, which unlike modern notopterans had wings, have been referred to as members of "Grylloblattida" and "Reculida", with their relationships to modern notopterans historically being the subject of controversy.

Winged "grylloblattidans" reached their apex of diversity during the Permian (299-252 million years ago), where they represented up to a third of all insects at some localities.