see text Peristediidae, the armored sea robins or armoured gurnards, is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Platycephaloidei in the order Scorpaeniformes.

Peristediidae was first proposed as a family in 1883 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Charles Henry Gilbert.

[1] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the family within the Platycephaloidei, which is a suborder of the order Scorpaeniformes.

[5] Peristediidae takes its name from the genus Peristedion which is a combination of peri, meaning "around", and stedion, which is a diminutive of stethos, which is Greek for "breast" or "chest", an allusion to the bony plates lining the underside of the body, similar to a plastron, the feature Lacépède use to distinguish Peristidion from Trigla.

The head is large and bony with numerous spines and ridges with a wide snout which is flattened on the top and bottom.