The village, originally called Clipstone or Clippeston, was renamed by Edward I in 1290 after Parliament was held at the Palace. Royal records, which were in Latin, recorded the village as 'Clipstone Regis'. The name, appearing as 'Clipstone Kings', was used on early maps from 1576 through to 1816. A good example is the Harrison map of 1787 shown on the right. The Mansfield to Tuxford (Great North Road) is shown to the south of the village passing through what is now Sherwood Pines Forest Park.

During the 18th & 19th centuries the name continued to appear in records such as

• Friendly Society Transactions which record James & Lisa Cutts at the Gate Inn, Kings Clipstone in 1794
  
• The book 'Kings Clipstone' by A Stapleton published in 1890.

The name Old Clipstone is a relatively modern invention. When Clipstone Pit was sunk in the 1920's a village for the miners, called Clipstone Village, was built two miles away on the parish boundary nearest Forest Town. This community has grown to become the modern day Clipstone.  From the 1930's both villages had residents called Bradley. To avoid confusion these residents started to use the labels Old & New Clipstone and by the 1950's these had come into general use. In later years the resident who coined the Old Clipstone label bitterly regretted not using the Kings Clipstone title.

In 1997, as a Millenium Project, a group of villagers came together to research and write a history of the village. Having discovered just how widely the Kings Clipstone title had been used, they decided to reclaim the mediaeval name of the village. In two sperate polls at least 97% of the residents backed the name change. The County Council changed the road signs and the Ordnance Survey changed their maps. However, we have been unable to activate the Post Offices procedure for changing postal addresses, hence the present confusion.