Croxall, historically in the Repton and Gresley Hundred of Derbyshire, probably comes from the Old English male personal name Croc derived from the Old Norse personal name Krókr and the Old English halh ‘nook, corner of land’. However, it is also possible that the first element is from the Old English topographical element croc ‘crook’, perhaps ‘nook’.
The parish was transferred to Staffordshire in 1894.