 First called Agaricus cinerellus by Finnish mycologist Petter Karsten in 1879, he transferred it to the genus Mycena that same year. In his 1936 Flora Agaricina Danica (Agaric flora of Denmark) Jakob Emanuel Lange referred it to the genus Omphalia; Omphalia cinerea (P. Karst.) J.E. Lange is now a synonym. Mycena cineroides was named and described as a new species distinct from M. cinerella by Hintikka in 1963, who thought it to be unique due to its narrowly acute cap that lacked brownish or yellowish tones, decurrent gills, and two-spored basidia. However, intermediate forms of it have been found, and some authorities, like Dutch Mycena specialist Maas Geesteranus, believe it should be treated as a synonym of M. cinerella.
