 The village was named after Sheikh Zeid Kilani, the late leader of the Kilani family.The village was the site of a 1935 shootout between the anti-colonial leader Izz al-Din al-Qassam and British Mandatory forces, which ended with al-Qassam killed.In the 1945 statistics the population of Nazlet Zeid was counted with that of Ya'bad, in an official land and population survey.