'Acton' means the farm by the oak trees.
It comes from Old English āc, oak, and tūn, at first an enclosure, which in the Middle Ages came to mean a farm. In the Middle Ages the northern half of the parish was heavily wooded, and oaks still stood along roads and hedgerows in the early 20th century. A North Acton Halt opened in 1904; today's station opened in 1923 a short distance east of it.