The name "Milden" means 'Melda's people' or 'orach place'.[5] Milden was recorded in the Domesday Book as Mellinga.[6]
Milden was in the Babergh hundred, in 1894 it became part of Cosford Rural District which became part of the administrative county of West Suffolk in 1889.[7] In 1974 it became part of Babergh non-metropolitan district in the non-metropolitan county of Suffolk.