Named after Lichterfelde West, the villa colony this station was built to serve.
The station opened in 1872 as Lichterfelde (Potsdamer Bahn), paid for by Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carstenn to link his new villa colony with Berlin; its building is in the style of a Tuscan villa. On 1 January 1899 it became Groß-Lichterfelde West, so that all three Lichterfelde stations were named after compass points. The 'Groß' was dropped in 1925.