Named after Ruislip, thought to mean the leaping place on the river where rushes grow.
Ruislip appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Rislepe, from Old English rysc, rush, and hlȳp, leap; the river is the Pinn. The station opened in 1906 as Ruislip & Ickenham and was renamed West Ruislip (for Ickenham) in 1947. The words in brackets were dropped around the 1960s.