The area was explored by Francis Thomas Gregory in 1846; he first recorded the name Jingalup. The area was eventually opened to agriculture. By 1918 the local farmers requested that a townsite be declared, and proposed the name be Mybrup. A town hall which was also used as a school and a recreation ground had been built by 1922, and the community knew the area as Jingalup. The town was gazetted in 1924.[2]
The name is Aboriginal in origin and is a contraction of the name of a nearby well, Kodjingalup Well.