'Acton' means the farm by the oak trees.
It comes from Old English āc, oak, and tūn, an enclosure and later a farm. The name was first recorded in 1181, borne by a witness called Viel of Acton. For centuries the village was called Church Acton, to tell it apart from East Acton. The station opened as Acton in 1853 and was renamed Acton Central in 1925.