Named after the town of Oranienburg, called after a palace built for a princess of Orange.
The town grew from a Slavic settlement probably called Bochzowe, later Bötzow. In 1650 Elector Friedrich Wilhelm gave the Bötzow estate to his wife, Louise Henriette of Orange (1627–1667), and in 1652 a Dutch-style palace was built there and named Oranienburg. The palace’s name passed to the town; the old name Bötzow went to a nearby village in 1694.