The two fruits were first studied by Oregon State University paleobotanist Brian Atkinson, with his 2016 type description for the genus and species being published in the NRC Research Press journal Botany.

Atkinson coined the genus name Suciacarpa as a combination of "Sucia" after the type locality and the Greek carpa meaning fruit.

The specific epithet starrii was chosen as a patronym honoring David W. Starr, who helped collect the fossils and to increase awareness of Sucia Island in the paleontology community.

[1] The formation has also preserved fossils of other terrestrial organisms including a single land snail, Condonella suciensis and a theropod femur, the first dinosaur identified from Washington State.

[3][1] The only fossil of S. xiangae was found in a calcareous nodule from an outcrop of the late Campanian Spray Formation, part of the Cretaceous Nanaimo Group.