It is named after the original farm that stood there when Pretoria was founded in the 19th Century.

Waterkloof is a highly sought-after area and has some of the city's most expensive real estate, including hilltop homesteads on Edward and Victoria Streets with views of Pretoria.

Many streets are named after British royalty; the main thoroughfares are Crown Avenue, which links Waterkloof with the affluent suburb of Brooklyn to its north, and Albert Street, which runs east–west between the neighbouring areas of Menlo Park and Groenkloof.

It is the home of soprano Mimi Coertse, and the location of the upmarket Dube-house in the film Tsotsi.

According to the South African National Census of 2001, 38.6% spoke Afrikaans, 37.5% English, 4.9% Tswana, 4.8% Northern Sotho, 3.1% Sotho, 2.0% Zulu, 1.9% Southern Ndebele, 1.2% Tsonga, 0.7% Xhosa, 0.5% Venda, 0.4% Swazi and 4.5% some other language as their first language.