Nobody knows for sure where 'Cockfosters' comes from.
The name is recorded as far back as 1524 and is thought to be that of a family, or of a house on Enfield Chase, a large common that was legally a forest. One suggestion is that it was the home of the 'cock forester', the chief forester. Before the station opened in 1933, Trent Park and Cock Fosters, an early spelling, were suggested as its name.