Once a small village in its own right, sitting on the original Renfrewshire-Lanarkshire border, the area takes its name from the fact that it lies equidistant between Glasgow and Paisley at a distance of 3 miles from each ('Three Mile House' was situated on Paisley Road West, but has long since gone, although 'Two Mile House' built and owned by the various railway companies at the junction of Dumbreck Road survived into the 1980s).