[2] The cockney rhyming slang term "chalfonts", meaning haemorrhoids (piles), is derived from the name of the village.

[citation needed] Chalfont St Giles is famous for the poet Milton’s only surviving home.

[6] During the English Civil War, some iron cannonballs were embedded in the stonework around the east window; they were believed to have been fired by Oliver Cromwell's troops when camped in the neighbouring field after the Battle of Aylesbury.

During the Great Plague of London in 1665, John Milton retired to Chalfont St Giles where he completed his epic poem Paradise Lost.

The village was the birthplace of cricketer J. T. Hearne, one of the greatest bowlers of the 1890s and 1900s, who died there in 1944, and of the actress Alexandra Gilbreath.

Notable residents of the village have included Ozzy Osbourne,[10] Harry Golombek, Brian Connolly, Brian Cant, Chicane,[11] Armando Iannucci, Noel Gallagher,[12] and Nick Clegg who became the Liberal Democrats party leader in 2007[13] and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015.

The Chiltern Open Air Museum, located immediately outside the parish boundary, rescues and re-erects historic buildings which face demolition, from medieval to modern.

The village is ideal for film production due to its close proximity to Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, and London.

The Chalfont St Giles Village Show is an annual event that normally occurs on the first Saturday of September.

[33] In May 2023, Chalfont St Giles hosted a street party to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III.

The event hosted thousands of people, with live music, barbeques, pop-up bars, rides, and face painting.