Named after the boulevard Malesherbes, which honours Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–1794).
The first stretch, from the Madeleine, was named by an ordinance of 2 June 1824; the City's register links the choice to the nearby Chapelle expiatoire, a memorial to Louis XVI. Malesherbes, a magistrate, botanist and statesman, headed the royal censorship and used it to support Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie. He defended Louis XVI at his trial and was guillotined during the Terror.