Probably named after the family of John Godemay, a 14th-century landowner.
A document of 1319 mentions John Godemay. The names Goodmayes and Goodmaistrete – the road now called Goodmayes Lane – are recorded in 1456, and a 1777 map shows a farm called Goodmath. Local historian Peter Foley argues the reverse: that Godemay took his name from the place. It stayed farmland until the developer Cameron Corbett pressed for a station, which opened in 1901.