 The cupped strand orchid was first formally described in 1902 by Frederick Manson Bailey who gave it the name "Sarcochilus newportii" and published the description in "The Queensland Flora" from a specimen collected on Mount Alexandra by Howard Newport.In 1909 Robert Allen Rolfe changed the name to "Bulbophyllum newportii".The specific epithet ("newportii") honour the collector of the type specimen.