Named after 157th Street; a plan to name it after Audubon Park failed.
While the station was being built, there was an unsuccessful proposal to name it after the neighbouring Audubon Park. The naturalist and artist John James Audubon bought 14 acres here in 1841; the estate became known as Minniesland, after his wife Lucy. Subdivided after his death in 1851, it became known as Audubon Park, a name formalised in 1860.