Named after the rue Nationale, which recalls the National Guard.
The Garde nationale was a citizens' militia created during the French Revolution and set up in this area. One source says the name recalls its 1848 form: the street was so named after the revolution of 1848 to celebrate the birth of the Second Republic. Another says the rue des Deux-Moulins, in 1846 a road of the commune of Ivry, took the name rue Nationale in 1870.