Named after Cottbusser Platz, which takes its name from the city of Cottbus.
The square was named in 1985; many streets of the new Hellersdorf estates were named after places in the GDR districts the building workers came from. The name Cottbus comes from the Lower Sorbian personal name Chóśebud, ‘vigilant hero’, so it can be read as ‘Chóśebud’s settlement’. The city was first recorded in 1156 as Chotibus.