Named after Anton Matthias Schön (1837–1922), who helped fund Neu-Weißensee.
His brother Gustav Adolf Schön bought the Weißensee manor in 1872 to sell it off as building plots; Anton helped finance the purchase and later sold the remaining plots. The square has carried his name since 1874. From 1898 to 1903 its northern part was called Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz.