'Harringay' means the enclosure of a Saxon chieftain called Haering.
Haering's hege, his enclosure, was first written as Harenhg' in about 1195; the same name later gave Haringey and Hornsey. Green Lanes, an ancient road towards Hertford, connected a series of greens and was possibly a drovers' road for cattle. The station opened in 1880 as plain Green Lanes and has been renamed five times since.