The station is named after the nearby rue de la Gaîté, which was a country road connecting Clamart with the Barrière du Montparnasse, a gate in the Wall of the Farmers-General at the intersection of the Boulevard Edgar-Quinet and the rue du Montparnasse (the location of Edgar Quinet métro station).

The station opened on 21 January 1937 as part of the initial section of the old line 14 between Porte de Vanves and Bienvenüe (today known as Montparnasse–Bienvenue).

As part of the "Un métro + beau" programme by the RATP, the station's corridors and platform lighting were renovated and modernised on 15 July 2001.

It is one of the few métro stations to have been named after a woman, after Bagneux–Lucie Aubrac, Barbara, Barbès–Rochechouart, Boucicaut, Chardon Lagache, Europe, Louise Michel, Madeleine, and Pierre et Marie Curie.

[9][10] This came five days after another accident on the métro at Bel-Air (on line 6) that resulted in the death of a woman when the train departed the platform with her jacket caught between the doors as she was alighting.