The pygmy rockfish was first formally described as Sebastodes wilsoni in 1915 by the American ichthyologist Charles Henry Gilbert with the type locality given as Albatross station 4518 at a depth of 66-140 fathoms off Monterey, California.

[3] The specific name honors Charles Branch Wilson, a marine biologist and authority on crustacean parasites of fishes.

[1] The color is pale brown tinted with red, paler below.

[5] The pygmy rockfish is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean along the western coast of North America from Kodiak Island and the northern Gulf of Alaska to Baja California.

It is a demersal fish which is found at depths between 30 and 274 m (98 and 899 ft).