• Aldwych - Originally, the Strand was the Thames waterfront and at Aldwych there was an inlet (old inlet - hence the bow shape) which silted up and trade moved either downstream to the Fleet (close to Blackfriars) or upstream to either Chelsea (supplies) or Lambeth (livestock) Quays. Water still flowed into Aldwych under Somerset House until the Victoria Embankment was built over the main sewers.
• Belgravia - Beautiful grove or plantation. However, this was the name of the original estate in Berkshire and had no reference to the land close to Pimlico.
• Bloomsbury - De Blemund's manor was built here on this raised ground.
• Holborn - hollow stream.
• Mayfair - place of the May fair.
• Soho - a hunting cry from the days when these were hunting woods.
• Westminster - Established in AD975 as an isolated minster (place of ecclesiatical ministry), the first abbey was funded by Edward the Confessor. Gradually, richer people moved westwards to avoid the smells and diseases of the City.

The name Westminster describes the area around Westminster Abbey and Palace of Westminster. Its name derives from the West Minster, or monastery church, west of the City of London's St Paul's. The area has been the seat of the government of England for almost a thousand years. The name is also used for the larger City of Westminster which covers a wider geographical area; and, since 1965, has included the former boroughs of Marylebone and Paddington.

"Westminster" is thus often used as a metonym for Parliament and the political community of the United Kingdom generally. The civil service is similarly referred to by the area it inhabits, "Whitehall", and "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the Westminster System, the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom. The Westminster System is used with some adaptation in many other nations, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations and other parts of the former British Empire.

The term Westminster Village, sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase Westminster Village gossip, it denotes a supposedly close social circle of Members of Parliament, political journalists, so-called spin doctors and others connected to events in the Palace of Westminster.

The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built. The Abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England. The nearby Palace of Westminster came to be the principal royal residence after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and later housed the developing Parliament and law courts of England. It can be said that London thus has developed two distinct focal points: an economic one in the City of London; and a political and cultural one in Westminster, where the Royal Court had its home. This division is still very apparent today.

The monarchy later moved to the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east. The law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice, close to the border of the City of London. The area is still the centre of government, with Parliament now located in the Palace of Westminster and most of the major Government ministries situated in Westminster, centred on Whitehall. Close to the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey is Westminster School, one of the major English public schools. Three of the four campuses of the University of Westminster are within the greater London borough of the City of Westminster, although none in the ancient area of Westminster.

The area has a substantial residential population, a surprisingly large proportion of which is a traditional London working class community living in council and Peabody Trust estates at the back of Westminster Abbey and off Millbank.