Named after the place and avenue Gambetta, which honour Léon Gambetta (1838–1882).
Elected a deputy in 1869 on his radical 'Belleville programme', he proclaimed the return of the Republic on 4 September 1870 and left besieged Paris by balloon; he was later prime minister and deputy for the 20th arrondissement. The place, opened in 1870 as the place des Pyrénées and then called place de Puebla, and the avenue both took his name in 1893.