Named after Wollankstraße, which honours the Pankow landowner Friedrich Adolph Wollank.
Wollank (1833–1877) was a lawyer, estate owner and Amtsvorsteher (local administrator) in Pankow; the former Prinzenstraße took his name in 1882. The station opened as Prinzenallee and has been called Wollankstraße since 3 October 1937. While the Wall stood it was an oddity: it lay in East Berlin but could only be entered from West Berlin.