The bridge is named by the Marcello family, which owns the building which stands on one side. Over the centuries the family has had doges and bishops as well as great soldiers including Lorenzo, called thunderbolt of war, who, captain of galleys in 1600 distinguished himself in naval battles, losing an arm , and being killed hit by a cannon ball during a battle with the Turks in the Dardanelles. Last of the famous family was Benedetto Marcello, who lived between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was wonderful artist in poetry and especially in music, earning the title of Prince of Venetian music. The Music Conservatory of Venice is dedicated to him. 

On the side of the bridge is the Rio del Malcanton, whose name derive from the fact that in ancient times the area was narrow and tortuos, and often happened that forigners fell into the water during the night, when passing in point where it bends in a semicircle.
Other hypothesis state that the name comes from the fact that, being the area sparsely inhabited at the time, there were often attacks and thefts.
A further theory attributes the name to the following fact: at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Ramberto Polo, Bishop of Castello, claimed the decima (a tax) on the deads of the parish from the priest of St. Pantaloon, as did the other pastors. On the other hand, the parish priest, relying on a dispensation received from the previous bishop, believed he did not have to pay. It seems that while Ramberto went there to claim the tax by force, he was attacked and killed by some common people of the area. This episode also seems to have created some of the rivalry that lasted for centuries between the Castellani and the Nicolotti, the two factions which divided the population of Venice. 

On the facades of the buildings at the foot of the bridge are some capitals, reilefs and a family crest, above the main entrance of Palazzo Marcello, now a hotel, representing a gothic shield supported by an half-height angel inserted in a rectangle with jagged edge