The species was originally named by Louisa Bolus as Ruschia utilis var. giftbergensis in the Notes on Mesembryanthemum and allied genera, in 1954. The author spent many years searching for this plant (Van Jaarsveld 1982) and eventually rediscovered it in 2014 on an expedition to the Gifberg. Subsequently, due to its distinctness, the variety was raised to species status in 2015 by the author in the Aloe magazine.

The genus Stoeberia was named by two German botanists, Kurt Dinter (1886–1945) and Gustav Schwantes (1881–?) in 1927, to commemorate the late Mr E. Stoeber, from Luderitz. The species name giftbergensis pertains to the Gifberg (formerly spelled Giftberg). Gifberg is an Afrikaans name, gif meaning ‘poison’ and berg meaning ‘mountain’, and relates to the plant Hyaenanche globosa, known as hyaena poison, wolwegifboom or boesmansgif, a large, evergreen, dioeceous, wind-pollinated, re-sprouting shrub of the family Picrodendraceae, which only grows on the Gifberg and adjacent Matsikamma quartzitic sandstone mountain massif. Formerly the seed of Hyaenanche globosa was used to poison hyaenas and also by the local Bushmen for their arrows.

It is one of 7 Stoeberia species, all endemic to the winter-rainfall region of South Africa. The others incude, S. arborea, S. carpi, S.beetzii, S. frutescens, S. gigas, S. utilis subsp. utilis and subsp. lerouxiae. They differ from other mesembs, by their tall, shrubby growth habit, seed capsule that remains open after initial opening and seeds which are mostly wind dispersed.