Stevenage is a town and district in Hertfordshire, England. It is to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), and is between Letchworth Garden City to the north, and Welwyn Garden City to the south.
Its population was 1,430 in 1801, 4,049 in 1901 and 79,724 in 2001. The largest increase occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, after Stevenage was designated a new town under the New Towns Act of 1946.
Stevenage may derive from Old English stiþen āc / stiōen āc / stithen ac (various Old English dialects cited here) meaning '(place at) the strong oak'.
The name was recorded as Stithenæce, c.1060 and Stigenace in 1086 in the Domesday Book.
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