The name recalls an old manor farm, a ‘Meierhof’.
The lane was named before 1862 after an old farm, recorded in 1386 as ‘der deutschen Herren Meierhof vor dem Kärntnerthor’ – a ‘Meierhof’ (manor farm) outside the Kärntnertor gate. Around 1450 it belonged to the Counts of Schaumburg. In 1778 the lane was called Mayerhöfel-Gasse; it leads from the main gate of the Theresianum.