Named after Johann Nestroy, the Viennese playwright and actor.
The square was named in 1932 after Johann Nestroy (1801–1862), dramatist, actor, opera singer and theatre director. His plays were successful at the Leopoldstädter Theater, renamed Carltheater in 1847, at Praterstraße 31, right opposite the square. A monument by Oskar Thiede, showing Nestroy in one of his own comic roles, was unveiled on the square in 1929.