Discovered 1872 Sept. 11 by P. M. Henry at Paris.

This name very probably is an allusion to the liberation of France at the time of the discovery. (Littrow, 7. ed., p. 445 (1886))

Another interpretation is (H 16) that this planet is possibly named for the first president of the French Republic, Adolphus Thiers, who arranged a loan of 5,000,000,000 golden francs, by means of which the Prussian troops were evacuated from the French territory after the France-Prussian War, 1870/71.