Named after the boulevard Edgar-Quinet, which honours Edgar Quinet (1803–1875).
The historian, poet and republican taught at the Collège de France from 1841 and was elected a deputy in 1848; after Louis-Napoléon's coup of 1851 he lived in exile until 1870. He is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery, whose main entrance is on the boulevard. Laid out in 1864 on the line of the Farmers-General wall as the boulevard de Montrouge, it took his name in 1879.