Its low density makes Great Falls unique as a residential community in the Washington suburbs. Originally, when it was only a trading center on the Potomac River, it was named Matildaville. Later, the community shifted to the west, and in the years after World War II, was an active dairy farming community named Forestville.  Later there was a name change to  Great Falls after the major geological formation that in the Potomac River known as the "Great Falls of the Potomac".