Ambarnath: From the Ambarnath/Ambareshwar shrine in the village, present since the 1100s, which also had mango (amba) trees in its courtyard.
Andheri: Very difficult to get any decent source information on this. Wikipedia says it is named after a hill called Udayanagari, but I find it hard to digest. Kalpish Ratna's book Once Upon A Hill calls it Andhragiri, which is more palatable. But how and when Andhragiri became Andheri, and what etymology does Andhragiri have, no idea.
Byculla: The etymology comes from the bhaya tree (Amaltas, Cassia Fistula) that used to grow here on a plain (khala), or that this was a threshing ground (khala), that belonged to someone named Bhaya.
Charni Road: In 1838, the British introduced a tax on herdsmen who wanted to have their cattle graze on public grounds, that most cattle owners couldn't afford. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy purchased some land near the Thakurdwar area which he then let the herdsmen use for free for grazing. The area started to be known as Charni (Charna in the local languages means to graze). So when a station was constructed here, it was named Charni Road.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus: Originally Bori Bunder station when the Indian Railways started in the 1850s, and the first station ever to be built, it was renamed Victoria Terminus after Queen Victoria. It was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996 after the great Maratha monarch.
Churchgate: Of the 3 gates of the Fort (now known as the Fort area) the nearest one to the St. Thomas Church (now St. Thomas Cathedral) used to be where Flora Fountain is now. Obviously, it started getting known as the Church Gate. So when the Colaba station was closed and the new station was built, it was built in the Church Gate area and named 'Churchgate'.
Cotton Green: From what I am able to make out of online archives & Wikipedia, India's first Cotton Exchange started on a village green (a meadow) in the location where Badhwar Park is now. The exchange was supposedly shifted to near where the Cotton Green station is. It kept the name as the Art Deco building it was housed in was painted in a green colour. I think this is anecdotal enough to actually make sense.
Dadar & Dadar East: Named after a set of stairs (dadar) that were built on the eastern edge of Mahim island, near to where the station was built. The name "Dadar" signifies a small stairway built on the eastern edge of Mahim Island; when the British built the Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railways (B.B.&C.I., now the "Western Division" of the Indian Railways), they named the station near these steps as Dadar. The area around the station on either side came to be named after this station by newer immigrants.
Elphinstone Road: Named after John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone and 1st Baron Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay from 1853 to 1860.
Grant Road: Named after Sir Robert Grant, who was Governor of Bombay from 1834 till his death in 1838.
Jogeshwari: Named after the Goddess Yogeshwari (Goddess of knowledge and enlightenment) whose temple is there in the caves in this area, called the Jogeshwari caves.
Kandivali: A couple of online sources trace it to Khand, which means stone/rock, as the station was built to service quarries that supplied stones to the Backbay Reclamation project. A better origin, though, is that there was an East Indian Christian village named Condolim since atleast the mid-1600s in the area.
Khar Road: Named after Khar Danda, the local fishing village nearby. खार (Khaar) colloiqually defines a salty land, which is what the area was, being close to the Arabian sea.
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus: Originally named Kurla Terminus, it was renamed after freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Mahalaxmi: Named after the Mahalaxmi temple nearby
Mahim: One of the original 7 islands that formed the 'Island City', also from 'Mahikavati' as it was called in the 13th Century CE.
Masjid: The area around this station is known as Masjid Bunder, aka Masjid Station & the Port. The 'Masjid' does not mean a mosque as usually mentioned, but a synagogue dating from the times of Tipu Sultan, which was known as theJuni Mashid (Old Mosque)
Matunga & Matunga Road: One of the villages on the Mahim island. One source traces it to Matang, elephants, which means that around the time of 'Mahikavati', this was where the king's elephants were housed.
Parel & Lower Parel: Both named after one of the original 7 islands that formed the 'Island City', Parel. The word comes from either the paradi tree, a flowering plant that prospered in this area, or the Parali village, from where many residents originated and a temple was constructed in memory of the Lord resident there.
Santacruz: Where the current Sacred Heart Church is, there used to be a Holy Cross and church well before the Marathas fought a war with the Portugese, won, and destroyed the church. The words for Holy Cross, Santa Cruz, became the de facto name of the area, and the railways made it one word, Santacruz, when naming the station servicing it.
Sion: When the Portuguese took the islands of Bombay by force, they gave some part of this island to the Jesuits, who built a church there, dedicated to Mt. Zion. This area formed the boundary between the Portuguese held and British held areas, hence the Marathi name, Sheev (Boundary) while the Hindi & English names colloquialize Zion to Sion.
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