<Dt> List of places </Dt> <P> Milton Keynes (/ ˌmɪltən ˈkiːnz / (listen) MIL - tən KEENZ), locally abbreviated to MK, is a large town in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, of which it is the administrative centre . It was formally designated as a new town on 23 January 1967, with the design brief to become a "city" in scale . It is located about 45 miles (72 km) north - west of London . </P> <P> At designation, its 89 km (34 sq mi) area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Wolverton, and Stony Stratford, along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between . It took its name from the existing village of Milton Keynes, a few miles east of the planned centre . </P> <P> At the 2011 census, the population of the Milton Keynes urban area, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell and Woburn Sands, was 229,941 . The population of the Borough in total was 248,800, compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961 . </P>

Where does the name milton keynes come from