Seewalds 18 - Spurgy and Henry

[SummerRocks]

Well if I were Spurgeon, I'd be sure to refer to my brother as Wilberforce everywhere! Ha! 

Seriously Spurgeon and Henry ... very happy for Henry, but it makes Spurgie so much worse. 

[GotCaughtDancing]

Well that was anti-climatic. I really like the name Henry. No matter how many babies they have and give normal names..still Spurgeon. 

[Casserole]

53 minutes ago, Mela99 said:

I wonder what it was that truly convinced Ben. Did Jessa put her foot down or was he wanting to avoid another Spurgeongate and name backlash

 

Maybe having to say Spurgeon out loud, constantly, for the last year made him realize how stupid that choice was? 

Did anyone else ever spend way too long just repeating a word until it makes zero sense and you're not even sure you're saying it correctly anymore? My friends and I did this all the time in middle school (we were weird, what can I say) and strudel and squirrel were always winners for weirdest word. Spurgeon fits right in. 

[ViolaSebastian]

I've always been puzzled with the Richard/Dick connection. Also Susan/Sookie. 

ETA: Googled that shit:

Quote

n the 12th and 13th centuries everything was written by hand and Richard nicknames like Rich and Rick were common just to save time. Rhyming nicknames were also common and eventually Rick gave way to Dick and Hick, while Rich became Hitch. Dick, of course, is the only rhyming nickname that stuck over time.

 

[GotCaughtDancing]

I love how these tools can go back in history to pluck a name but have blinders on to all other historical facts. They history like they bible, pick and choose and make up their own facts. back to your regularly scheduled programming, I just need to get that out of my head.

[Hokey Pokey]

I'm feeling oddly disappointed, what a perfectly normal reasonable name. I'm glad for little Henry though, much easier name to go through life with.

[louisa05]

57 minutes ago, danni9242 said:

Princess Diana married first in line to the throne so her kids had to have about 5 'royal' names so she got around it with more casual names for at home/at school with Wills and Harry.

Except that it is well documented that William was never called "Wills" or even "Will" by his parents. "Wills" was a nickname coined by and only used by the press. When he was a baby, Charles and Diana called him "Wombat" but never "Wills". Reports around the time of his marriage were that he introduced himself to the Middletons saying "Call me William" so it seems he goes by his whole name in daily life. 

Harry, as someone stated above, has long been a preferred nickname for royal Henrys, so that is not unusual at all. 

And remember, Diana was from a noble family. One with older English lineage than the Windsors, in fact. The necessity of formal familial names were nothing new in her life and it has never even been implied that she named her kids to "get around it". 

[Markie]

Yes, Henry is loads better than Spurgeon. At least Spurge will meet up with equally horrid named kiddos at homeschooling events. 

 

My cousin's son, Henry, went off to Middle School and reinvented himself as Hank! Lol!

[Carm_88]

Wow. Henry? A few people picked Wilberforce. Jeez. Poor Spurgie. At least he's super cute and he can always fall back on Elliot. Jessa totally vetoted Wilberforce as a first name. 

[singsingsing]

A lot of these nicknames are Medieval in origin, and some of them were formed by people saying 'mine [name]' as a form of endearment. 

"Mine Ed" = Ned

"Mine Elinor/Elizabeth/Ellen" = Nell/Nelly

"Mine Anne" = Nan/Nancy

 

[Rachel333]

15 minutes ago, ViolaSebastian said:

I've always been puzzled with the Richard/Dick connection. Also Susan/Sookie. 

ETA: Googled that shit:

 

I once had someone ask me, "How do you get Dick from Richard?" and I went into a long explanation of rhyming nicknames in hte middle ages, including Nan/Ann, Bill/Will, and Polly/Molly. When I finished he responded, "Wow, that was interesting. I was just going to say, 'You ask him nicely.'"

That's not the only time I've ruined a joke with an overly literal interpretation of the question.

[marmalade]

Was it mentioned that William Wilberforce had a son named.....HENRY who converted to CATHOLICISM??? 

Someone didn't do their research! 

eta: Evidence 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wilberforce

[SassyPants]

4 minutes ago, Markie said:

Yes, Henry is loads better than Spurgeon. At least Spurge will meet up with equally horrid named kiddos at homeschooling events. 

 

My cousin's son, Henry, went off to Middle School and reinvented himself as Hank! Lol!

IDK...he might meet the likes of Scottlyn, Ashton, Bowen or Carson, but I'm not imaging that he'll be meeting anyone close to a Spurgeon or Wilberforce at those events.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Imagine how we would all be flipping our shit if they went with Wilberforth Henry Seewald. 

 

Chaos!

4 minutes ago, singsingsing said:

A lot of these nicknames are Medieval in origin, and some of them were formed by people saying 'mine [name]' as a form of endearment. 

"Mine Ed" = Ned

"Mine Elinor/Elizabeth/Ellen" = Nell/Nelly

"Mine Anne" = Nan/Nancy

 

But why add the -cy to Nan? Because it sounds cutesy?

[FloraKitty35]

3 hours ago, SportsgalAnnie said:

Anyone else think of "Charlotte's web" when they see Wilber?

Or Mr. Ed

[VooDooChild]

Wow.  How anti-climatic.  That name is just as barf-worthy as spurge's.  I mean, Henry's alright, I guess.  Henry Wilberforce Sea World just doesn't quite roll off the tongue, ya know.

[nst]

 Henry Wilberforce Seewald.

I love the name Henry and the other name Ben got to preach to us for a whole minute 

and Glad Jessa got her way 

 

[merg429]

I like the name Henry! As many others have said - looks like Jessa had more of a say in this one. 

Also  I agree with  @VelociRapture and others, i am a Degreed History Professional(TM) as well and oh my goodness, I couldnt even with that show!

Another awful one is Reign, I watched maybe two episodes and the innaccuracies and costumes were worse than The Tudors. 

I have never heard of Frock Flicks, off to check that out!

[Gobsmacked]

Or Sally for Sarah. Sarah is a lovely name. Why change it to Sally? 

Sally is a pretty stand alone name. Not sure if it is popular nowadays? It was back in the 1960s.

[singsingsing]

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

But why add the -cy to Nan? Because it sounds cutesy?

I honestly don't know, but that would be my guess! Nancy might have been a later variation, I'm not sure. 'Anne' wasn't a very common name in England until around the 15th or 16th century. Agnes (pronounced Annis) was much more popular, so Nan/Nanny might have been a nickname for that as well.

Lots of names we think of as full first names nowadays got their start as Medieval nicknames... Colin, Austen, Maud, Alison and Marion come to mind.

@Gobsmacked Medieval English people had trouble pronouncing some of the imported names. I don't know why, but 'r' was a letter they had a big issue with, hence Sally for Sarah, Hal for Henry, Molly for Mary and so on.

[AlternativeVoice]

3 hours ago, Pretzel said:

He can still go by Elliott Seewald in the future. Just drop the Spurgeon. I find Wilberforce to be much more on the weird end than Spurgeon but then again I'm not a native speaker. Henry is a really cute and perfectly fine name and I'm relieved Jessa has won this times. She looks radiant and I'm glad that motherhood seems to have grown on her. I was very worried about her being absolutely no mom-material back when she got married. 

Jessa adapts to motherhood better than all of them in my opinion. Even Anna. She seems to genuinely be in complete love with her children. 

[withaj]

9 minutes ago, merg429 said:

I like the name Henry! As many others have said - looks like Jessa had more of a say in this one. 

Also  I agree with  @VelociRapture and others, i am a Degreed History Professional(TM) as well and oh my goodness, I couldnt even with that show!

Another awful one is Reign, I watched maybe two episodes and the innaccuracies and costumes were worse than The Tudors. 

I have never heard of Frock Flicks, off to check that out!

Oh, there is nothing worse than Reign for history. Yikes. I guess they figured fewer people were familiar with the story of MQoS so they could do whatever they wanted with it. 

[nst]

1 hour ago, HRM1216 said:

I'm so mad. I'm the kind of person who thinks all sibling names need to "match" in style. You can't just name one kid Spurgeon and the other Henry. It isn't right. I wish they would've called him Elliot from the get-go to justify switching the order of his name.

But in other news, I actually dislike Wilberforce more than Spurgeon. It takes too much effort to say.

I don't agree.   I think a bunch of different names are perfect for any family 

all kids are different so a different brand and name 

[Kjaerringa]

@marmalade yes... I mentioned it. I actually thought they MEANT to name him for Henry Wilberforce,aand was gobsmacked. Could NOT stop laughing when I realized they had NO clue that William Wilberforce had a son named Henry.....much less one that converted to Catholicism. So son no. 2 now bears the name of a pretty well known Catholic theologian...... I just love it.

[Mela99]

William Wilberforce had a son named Henry......who converted to Roman Catholicism. Truth.

Makes ya wonder how much they really research these people before naming a kid after them ....