'Acton' means the farm by the oak trees.
It comes from Old English āc, oak, and tūn, at first an enclosure and later a farm; the name is first recorded in 1181. The station opened in 1868 simply as Acton and became Acton Main Line in 1949. Acton has seven stations bearing its name: 'Main Line', for the Great Western Main Line, tells this one apart from those on the tube and the Overground.