The plateau lark was formally described in 1900 by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow based on a specimen collected in Tanzania north of Lake Malawi on the Kitulo Plateau.

He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra africana nigrescens.

[1] The specific epithet is from Latin nigrescens, nigrescentis meaning "blackish".

[2] The plateau lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha.

This is based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a group of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024.