The French word grève refers to a flat area covered with gravel or sand situated on the shores or banks of a body of water.

The location presently occupied by the square was the point on the sandy right bank of the river Seine where the first riverine harbor of Paris was established.

The highest-profile executions took place on the grève, including the gruesome deaths of the assassins François Ravaillac and Robert-François Damiens, as well as the bandit-rebel Guy Éder de La Fontenelle.

On 22 February 1680, the famous French fortune teller, poisoner and alleged sorceress La Voisin was burned to death in the square.

They then proposed burning Marie Antoinette in effigy, but the troops were deployed and they dispersed the crowds with great bloodshed in the Place de Grève.