Named after an old oak tree, said to have been burnt by lightning.
The name is first recorded in 1754 for a field beside Edgware Road, the Roman Watling Street. In 1853 a land society built houses on the field and used its name, as the local name Redhill was linked with the workhouse. The station, nearly called Sheves Hill, opened in 1924 as Burnt Oak (for Watling).