Named after Blackhorse Road, whose name is a corruption of Black House Lane.
The Black House was a mansion at the southern end of the road. The road dates from Saxon times, a route from the common lands of Higham Hill to the mills at today's Lea Bridge, first called Werdestrete. Its southern section was renamed Black Horse Road in 1888; the black horse on the station's tiles refers to that later name, not to its origin.