Willoughby

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A English surname and place name, borne by families and used for several towns, including one in Ohio in the United States
2. An English family name, also given to various localities such as a city in northeastern Ohio and villages in England
3. A surname of English origin, also applied as a place name to several settlements, among them a city in the American state of Ohio

Etymology: Willoughby is a place-name surname built from two Old English and Old Norse elements: Old English "weliġ" meant "willow", and Old Norse "byr" meant "settlement" or "farmstead". Put together, the name describes a homestead among the willows. The "-by" ending is the mark of Scandinavian settlement in northern and eastern England, where Viking-age settlers founded many villages with names ending in "-by", so the place was named by Norse speakers who arrived in a landscape already known to Anglo-Saxons by its willow trees. The name then travelled from the village to the families who lived there. Like many English surnames, it was taken from a place of origin, so a person called Willoughby was often someone who came from, or held land at, a place with this name. Several such places exist in England, and the surname spread with families who took their identity from them.