The pub was named after General Sir John Stuart who was made Count of Maida by King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily after the victory at the Battle of Maida in 1806. Previously the fields here had been the highest part of Paddington at 120 feet above sea level and called "Hill House Fields".
By 1810 the locality was being marked as ‘Maida’ on maps. The Maida Hill tunnel, begun in 1812, was the first canal tunnel to be built in London and is the second longest. Its route had to be altered to avoid the Portman estate, which had refused passage through its property.
The part of Edgware Road immediately north of the Regent’s Canal was subsequently called Maida Hill, and later Maida Hill East, while modern Little Venice was formerly Maida Hill West. The whole name then migrated west and renamed an area previously known as St Peter’s Park.
Modern Maida Hill is bounded to the north and east by Shirland Road, in the west by Walterton Road with the Regent's Canal to the south.
The name had fallen out of use but, in the mid 2000s, the 414 bus route revived the name as its destination on Shirland Road. Then a new street market on the Piazza at the junction of Elgin Avenue and Harrow Road deened itself in Maida Hill.