The term Santa Cruz comes from the Portuguese words meaning Holy Cross. The name was that given to a church that existed on a site on the western side of the railway station, at the site presently occupied by the Podar School, Sacred Heart Boys High School/Sacred Heart Church on Swami Vivekanand Road, and which had been devastated by the Marathas during their conquest of the region from Portugal. This former parish church gave its name to the locality.The church was constructed in the early 1930s. The parish has around 14,000 parishioners with Fr. Abel as the present parish priest.

BEST Bus Depot, Santacruz (West): Located on Swami Vivekanand Road near Milan Subway (after the intersection of Juhu Road and Swami Vivekanand Road). BEST Bus Station, Santacruz (East): Located near the station, in Santacruz (East). MTNL Office: Located inside the BSNL Campus on Juhu Road Military Camp: Located in Vakola - This is a training and command post of the Western Military command. The command houses quite a few artillery and infantry battalions and is one of the last tracts of greenery in the area. The Ramkrishna Mission has a yearly fest between October and December. As they celebrate the annual Bengali Durga Puja Lakshmi Puja Kali Puja Saraswati Puja It is widely attended for its mix of eclectic stalls selling cultural wares, clothes, religious and spiritual books, devotional music and eateries. The food stalls outside the hospital are famous in Mumbai for Chaat.