Named after the porte d'Italie, the gate on the road from Paris to Italy.
It was a fortified gate of the Thiers wall, opening onto the road to Italy: today the avenue d'Italie and, beyond Paris, the N7 to Menton. That road was formerly called the route de Fontainebleau. The avenue de la Porte-d'Italie, partly on the site of the old gate, was named in 1929.