Named after Abram Ditmars, the first mayor of Long Island City.
Ditmars Boulevard, originally Ditmars Avenue – the name the station bore when it opened – honours Abram Ditmars, elected first mayor of Long Island City in 1870. His family descended from Jan Jansen Ditmarsen, who emigrated from Holstein in Germany; the first Ditmars settled in Dutch Kills around 1647. The boulevard in turn gave its name to the Ditmars section of northern Astoria.