Named after the place des Ternes, which recalls the old hamlet of Les Ternes.
The square, laid out and named in 1893, takes its name from the avenue des Ternes, which ran through the hamlet. Texts of 1320 and 1412 mention a villa externa, an ‘outer farm’, which became Estern, then Ternes: the most commonly accepted explanation of the name. The hamlet also gave its name to the Ternes quarter.