'Hayes' means land overgrown with brushwood; 'Harlington' the farmstead of Hygered's people.
Hayes comes from Anglo-Saxon hǣs or hǣse, brushwood, and is spelt Hesa in the Domesday Book of 1086. Harlington is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Hygereding tun: a 9th-century charter names 'Hygeredington' as the western boundary of land at Botwell in Hayes. Henry Bennet, secretary of state to Charles II, took his title of Arlington from Harlington.