Named after the Porte de Charenton, the gate on the road to Charenton.
A gate in the fortifications stood here, controlling the route impériale 5, the road to Geneva. It opens onto Charenton-le-Pont: ‘Charenton’ comes from a pre-Indo-European root kal or kar, ‘stone’, perhaps linked to stone quarrying there, and ‘le Pont’ from a 7th-century bridge over the Marne.