Probably named after a coaching inn, the Golden Cross, on the road to Kent and Dover.
The inn stood close to today's New Cross House pub. In 1675 the diarist John Evelyn met a friend at ‘New Crosse’ before travelling through Kent to France. The area was first called Hatcham, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hacheham. The name New Cross spread to the whole district after the toll gate was moved in 1813.