Named after the rue du Jourdain ('Jordan'), which leads to the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville.
The parish churches that followed one another on that site, down to today's neo-Gothic church of 1854–1859, were all dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, who baptised Christ in the river Jordan. The street was opened by a decree of 28 July 1862 and named by an order of 26 February 1867.