Paimpont is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.
The name is a compound of Old Breton pen "head" and the Latin borrowing pont "bridge" and is first attested in the 9th century in the Latinised form Caput Pontis and then in 870 CE as Penpont. The town grew up around the abbey of Our Lady of Paimpont, which was founded by the Breton king and Catholic saint Judicael in 645 CE on the shore of a small lake now known as the Étang de Paimpont.