Named after the Grands Boulevards, laid out where the old city walls stood.
The word boulevard comes from the Dutch bolwerc, 'plank work', first meaning a rampart; these right-bank boulevards replaced the walls of Charles V and Louis XIII. The station, opened in 1931, was first named after the nearby rue Montmartre: its signs read Montmartre, later Rue Montmartre. In summer 1998 it was renamed, as many tourists thought it served the hill of Montmartre, several kilometres north.