Named after Pankow, which takes its name from the river Panke.
Pankow was founded around 1230 by German settlers, who kept the Slavic name of the river. Its meaning is uncertain: it may come from the Polabian ‘pak’ (‘bud’ or ‘tuft’), the river swelling like a bud, or describe a ‘swirling’ stream. The S-Bahn station was soon renamed Pankow-Schönhausen, after nearby Schloss Schönhausen, and has been called Berlin-Pankow since 1954.