Named after the rue du Chemin-Vert ('green path').
The name recalls the time when the street crossed market gardens. On 24 October 1776 Jean-Jacques Rousseau followed it to the heights of Ménilmontant, then walked on through vines and meadows to Charonne, as he tells in his Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. In 1868 the street was joined with the rue des Amandiers-Popincourt.