Named after Mahlow, a village first recorded in 1280 as Malow.
According to the municipality, the name is Slavic and means roughly 'place of Mal', after a man called Mal. The village appears in 1280 as Malow and was given to the Benedictine convent of Spandau in 1287. The station opened with the railway to Dresden on 17 June 1875.