Named after the railway junction in the old parish of Willesden.
'Willesden' comes from the Anglo-Saxon Willesdune, the hill of the spring; a manor of that name was recorded in 939, and the Domesday Book of 1086 has Wellesdone. The Ordnance Survey's First Series maps show Wilsdon: today's spelling was adopted by the London and Birmingham Railway for a local station in the 1840s. Here the North London line crosses the West Coast Main Line.