The museum, like all the buildings that preceded it on this site, takes its name from the Quai d'Orsay.

It is a boulevard on the left bank of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the Quai d'Orsay, and the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the National Assembly.

 The Quai d'Orsay owes its name to Charles Boucher d'Orsay, French judge, advisor to the Parisian Parliament.