Runs through many townlands from Ballymurphy to Tornagrough, high up on the slopes of Divis.
Springfield Village, Springfield Road and Avenue got their name from the number of small springs in the area. It seems that the name was first applied to a big house and textile mill which is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 6" map (c 1830). The house may be considerably older. A newspaper advertisement in 1766 refers to Springfield as a farm. Springfield Road was marked and named on James Williamson's map of Belfast made in 1791. However, the site of the house was beyond the edge of this map, so we cannot be sure if it existed then.
Names in "Springfield" are rendered Cluanaigh in Irish, e.g. Springfield Road = Bóthar Chluanaí. This is explained by the fact that Clowney (< Ir. Cluanaigh, 'place of meadows') was a townland roughly in the Beechmount area in the 17th century (PlacenamesNI.org). Later this was incorporated into the larger townland of Ballymurphy. As the name no longer had official townland status, it was prone to replacement by the name of the new house, mill and estate, Springfield, in English, but the old name survived in Irish.
The Irish language form only applies to part of the street.