'Drayton' was probably a farm by a slope where loads were dragged, or by ploughed land.
It was known in 939 as Draegtun, when King Æthelstan gave the manor to St Paul's Cathedral, and appears as Draitone in the Domesday Book of 1086 and Westdrayton in 1465. 'West' may have been added to tell it apart from Drayton near Ealing. From 1895 to 1974 the station was called West Drayton and Yiewsley.