Lexington Avenue is named after the Battle of Lexington in the American Revolutionary War.
The avenue was not part of the 1811 street grid. It began in 1832, when lawyer and developer Samuel Ruggles sought a new avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues. The northern section, opened in 1836, became Lexington Avenue; the southern one became Irving Place, after his friend Washington Irving. This station was originally called Lexington–Third Avenues.