The name recalls the old Manor of Ruislip, on whose fields this suburb was built.
Early in the 20th century this was open fields, part of the Manor of Ruislip, owned by King's College, Cambridge. The Metropolitan Railway opened Ruislip Manor Halt in 1912, long before the houses. George Ball then bought 186 acres from the college and built his Manor Homes estate between 1933 and 1939; the small halt was replaced by a new station in 1938.