'Tottenham' is thought to mean the ham, or hamlet, of a man called Totta.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the settlement as Toteham; one source spells the man's name Tota and calls him a farmer. The name is not related to Tottenham Court Road in central London, despite the similar sound. The station opened in 1871 as South Tottenham and Stamford Hill and was renamed South Tottenham in 1949.