'Wick' comes from Old English wic, here a dairy farm.
The area grew from a landholding called Wick Manor, farmed from a large building, Wick House, beside the marshes of the River Lea, where cattle grazed. In 1745 there was little more than Wick House and a handful of cottages. Houses spread only in the 1860s and 1870s, after the railway arrived.