Willoughby

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Any opinions please?

Em. No.

I associate this only with the corrupt and caddish Willoughby of Sense and Sensibility. I'm not keen on it as a first name I'm afraid. Will is obviously nice as a nn.

No no no. Willoughby was a rogue and a scoundrel.

Willoughby made me think of a kangaroo - am now going to have to search dc's books till I find which book it's from.

You've got to have a good surname to go with Willoughby though I think.

Rather like it but it makes me think of Holly Willoughby. I feel so low-brow

ARe you being deliberately pretentious? Or do you lack the imagination to see how sneered at this child will be with a name like that?

PM are you thinking of wallabies?

It was the name of my great grandad (who died long before even my mum was born). We have got the family tree and it was used several times in the family prior to that. The worst bit is that their surname also started with Wil.... too!

I erm opted out of the trend as did my mum and grandma so my uncle has named his cat Willoughby instead .

The bad hat in Sense and Sensibility, I'm afraid.

PM - Willoughby Wallaby - "There's an ouch in my pouch"

are you serious?

No, because in my minds ear I can only hear it as breathily intoned by Kate Winslet.

A cad and a bounder. Sorry.

He will grow up to be a love rat. Fact.

Can't stand it, personally.

It makes me think of Willoughby and Willa, the characters in the gorgeous book 'Tell me Something Happy Before I go to Sleep'.

I think it's cute.

mrs woolf when i saw your name i thought you'd namechanged deliberately for this

first thought is the wolves of willoughby chase

I normally like poncey names but this one somehow is so portly and pretentious and high collared i feel it might be eye-rolled even by the Tarquin and Augustus crowds

oh, am shocked by these responses. i think it's lovely. original and cool.

A friend's just used it for her DS. I have to say that I was a bit about it at first because it does seem a bit OTT (aside from the love rat connections), but it's grown on me a bit. He won't be going to the local school though so maybe that makes it a bit easier.....

The Sense and Sensibility character was John Willoughby - it's a surname.

Oh, I love it! Cute

love it - know a toddler by that name and it's lovely

I know someone whose 9 ish yr old boy is Willoughby - Willo for short.

We affectionately tease her for her pretentions, and this particular name made me at first, but Willo is lovely, the name suits him, I like how it sounds, and in a multi-cultural school I don't think there's much name-based teasing because the variety is so wide.

DH is far more conservative with names than me though - doesn't like surnames as first names.

Willoughby as used in S&S is a surname. As a first name for a child I think it is dreadful - sorry.

Don't be so silly.