Named after the rue Riquet, which honours Pierre-Paul Riquet, creator of the Canal du Midi.
Riquet, a salt-tax farmer and entrepreneur from Béziers, designed and built the Canal du Midi between the Garonne and the Mediterranean. He died in Toulouse in 1680; his sons completed the canal, inaugurated in 1681. The rue Riquet was formed in 1865 by joining three older streets of the former villages of La Villette and La Chapelle.