The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'hill where wheat is grown'. The village is referred to several times in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle generally in the form of Hwętędun.
The village is at the centre of the ancient Whaddon Chase, the site for many centuries of royal and ritual hunting lands. However the hunt that took place here on Boxing Day 2003 will probably be the last one ever to take place in Whaddon Chase if new legislation is passed by the government of the United Kingdom (see Fox Hunting).