Named after the rue Brochant, which honours the geologist André Brochant de Villiers (1772–1840).
He studied at the Freiberg mining school and became professor of geology, a member of the Académie des sciences in 1816 and director of the Saint-Gobain glassworks in 1822; the mineral brochantite is named after him. The street, opened in 1845 in the old commune of Batignolles as the rue Notre-Dame, took his name by decree of 24 August 1864.