'Penge' is a Celtic name meaning the head or end of the wood.
It comes from the Brittonic words that survive in Welsh as pen, head or end, and coed, wood; Pencoed in Wales has the same origin. In 957 King Eadwig granted the manor of Battersea together with swine pasture at Penge, and a copy of that charter speaks of 'the wood that is called Penge'. The station opened as Penge and became Penge West in 1923.