The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'valley where nettles grow'. In manorial records of the late Twelfth century the village was recorded as Neteleydene.
Anciently the village was a hamlet in the parish of Pitstone, in Buckinghamshire though the boundary of the hamlet was completely surrounded by the county of Hertfordshire. Nettleden was only made part of Hertfordshire, and a parish in its own right, in 1895.
Today the village sits in a very attractive location, on the periphery of Asheridge Common.