Comments for the name Willoughby

Willoughby is the last name of one of the characters in Jane Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility.'

IMHO, taking surnamity a smidgen too far.

"....and this is my son, Willoughby Jamison, and my daughter, Pennington Lacey..."

(Ugh, I actually LIKE Pennington Lacey! LOL)

Despite it generally being seen as a male name, Willoughby is the name of my great great great great grandmother (born 1815 in Norfolk, England) and is primarily used as a female name in Norfolk from at least the early 1700s.

Willoughby Smith was an English electrical engineer who discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium. http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/smith.html

Cute but sort of flimsy. Would make a good name for the nickname Will if you are adverse to William.

The spelling is quite heavy-looking, and the name would look nicer spelled Willowby. This spelling looks old-fashioned and pretentious. Even spelled Willowby, the name is dated and pretentious. It makes me think of a geeky little boy from 80 years ago.

Willoughby is the name of the seemingly perfect and handsome man that Marianne Dashwood falls in love with in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

I suppose that I shall be the novelty here and preach of my liking for the name "Willoughby"! Which is increasingly unusual, as there is perhaps one other surname-turned-forename that I approve of.

Oddly enough, I find it very classic and strong... but unusable in contemporary time, unless you dub your dog as such.

As for "Willowby"... my fondness does not stretch that far. Personally, the incorrect spelling ("Willowby") looks mammothly higher in a pretentious percentage. It is an order in which new parents of this age would succumb to in the name of being 'original,' 'kre8tiv,' and 'cute.'
Unfortunately, it becomes neither of those things.
So, with that, I disagree with you.