Named after the square and church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, once part of a royal abbey.
King Childebert I and Germain, bishop of Paris, founded the abbey in the mid-6th century as the basilica of the Holy Cross and Saint Vincent; it takes its present name from Germain, who consecrated it around 558. 'Des Prés', from the Latin de pratis, 'of the meadows', recalls its site outside medieval Paris, in the meadows of the Left Bank.