Ornatops was originally discovered in 2018 within the Menefee Formation of New Mexico, United States. The fossil material was discovered by staff and volunteers from the Western Science Center, Zuni Dinosaur Institute for Geosciences, and Southwest Paleontological Society. The specimen was described on the basis of a relatively complete and articulated specimen WSC 10058 in 2021. The holotype consists of a well-preserved skull lacking the maxillae and lower jaws, two dorsal vertebrae, a rib, ossified tendons, the right scapula, most of the right humerus, ulna, and radius, the second and third right metacarpals as well as an incomplete ilium and ischium, making it the most complete dinosaur from the Menefee Formation.
In 2021, three years after its initial discovery, Ornatops received a proper type species name. Its generic name, Ornatops, means "ornate face" from Latinornatus and Greek ops, in reference to the elaborate nasofrontal suture. The specific name, incantatus, means "enchanted"; it is a reference to New Mexico's moniker, the "Land of Enchantment".
Ornatops incantatus was a genus of brachylophosaurinhadrosaurid that existed in what is now New Mexico, United States approximately 78 million years ago. The exact proportions of Ornatops remain undescribed as the paper naming and describing the genus only examined the cranialskeleton. However, a future paper analysing the post-cranial remains of Ornatops was announced.
