Named after Alt-Tegel, the old village street of Tegel.
Tegel is first recorded in 1322 as the church village ‘Tygel’. One explanation sees in the name a Slavic root meaning ‘appendage’, referring to the Tegeler See, an offshoot of the Havel. The old main street was renamed Alt-Tegel in 1937. The station opened in 1958 as Tegel and was renamed Alt-Tegel in 1992, possibly to tell it apart from the S-Bahn station.