Named after the boulevard Saint-Marcel, which crosses the old faubourg Saint-Marcel.
The faubourg, also called Saint-Marceau, is named after the tomb of Marcel, a bishop of Paris who died in 435 or 436, or after the collegiate church of Saint-Marcel said to have held it; the church stood at today's corner of the boulevard and the avenue des Gobelins until 1806. A decree of 17 October 1857 approved a boulevard called Saint-Marcel.