Named after the rue d'Alésia, which recalls the Gaulish stronghold of Alesia.
At Alesia, in 52 BC, Julius Caesar defeated the Gaulish army led by Vercingetorix in the decisive battle of the Gallic Wars. A decree of 10 August 1868 (the City's register says 1869) renamed the rue du Transit, named after the railway. Part of it began as a country lane, the chemin de la Justice, after a gallows that probably stood nearby.