Puck pinnata was first formally described in 1978 by the American ichthyologist Theodore Wells Pietsch III with its type locality given as the Northwestern Pacific Ocean at 38°16'N, 152°34'E from a depth of 5,350 m (17,550 ft).

[4] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this genus in the family Oneirodidae in the suborder Ceratioidei of the anglerfish order Lophiiformes.

Pietsch described the figure of Puck from Germanic folklore as "a minor order of mischievous devils, sprites, goblins or demons; a devilish trickster".

He also said that it was a "trickster" because it is an ambush predator, waiting in the absulote darkness of the deep and lures in prey with bioluminescent bait.

This species is separated from these taxa in the possession of a short snout, highly convex frontal bones and oblique suspeniosn of the mandible.