The whitenose pigfish was first formally described in 1922 as Congiopodus leucometopon by the British-born Australian zoologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and ornithologist Edgar Ravenswood Waite with the type locality given as the beach at Glenelg on Gulf St Vincent in South Australia.

[2] In 1940 Gilbert Percy Whitley reclassified this species in the monotypic genus Perryena.

[3] A recent study placed the whitenose pigfish into an expanded stonefish clade, the Synanceiidae, because all of these fish have a lachrymal sabre that can project a switch-blade-like mechanism out from underneath their eye.

Unlike the species in the genus Congiopodus there are 3 spines, as opposed to none, in the anal fin and 6 or 7 soft rays.

The forehead, first dorsal-fin spine, the anterior part of the snout and the tip of the chin are white, separated from the dark brown remainder of the head and body by a black stripe.