Jessa and Ben 49: Five and Counting

[Coconut Flan]

Continued from here:

 

[Father Son Holy Goat]

If Michelle is running to cover up a 4 year old’s shoulders to keep Josh from being tempted it shows she did understand more about her son’s predilections than previously thought.

[BullyJBG]

George Augustine is his name. Interesting, but could be worse. Fern keeps trying to kiss him over and over.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Welcome little GAS! I bet his name will be a prediction.

[postscript]

Better than I expected from them. I suspect Jessa took a harder line after the first couple name choices. She seems to like simple, classic names. 

Fern is very cute with the baby. She bring him a stuffed animal and puts his arm around it. 

[Mama Mia]

Except for the the very — ermmm ..unique?  Spurgeon, all her kids names seem to go together really well. I’m of an advanced age where George and Henry sound like grumpy old man names to me. Old fashioned, but not old fashioned enough to be cool again.  But I know they are very popular right now. There are several little kid Henry’s in my area.  Ivy and Fern are cute but strong, and I could see any of them fitting a range of personalities. If they’d gone with the middle name first - Elliot instead of Spurgeon, it would be a very cohesive group. As a set they come off as kind of capable, no-nonsense names- which fits Jessa.
 

I feel for Spurgeon. I have one kid who we gave a name that is very unique. We think it is very pretty, but she hates it. And her siblings all have more common names ( although a few didn’t seem popular when we used them, but then they somehow had classrooms with multiple same named kids- how does that work ???) and she hates that. 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Mama Mia

[GuineaPigCourtship]

I never liked sharing a name with anyone.  My name is very classic but never all that popular as a first name.  I thought it was so boring, but glad not to have another kid in class with my name until I was in middle school.  My daughter has an uncommon but (I think) beautiful name that seems to suddenly be more common.  I picked it about 8 years before she was born and had been tracking it, only to have it jump up in popularity.  I don't know if it had ever been in the top 200 before so I'm a bit irritated about it, having discarded a bunch of names I loved since childhood because they became too common.  I think Fern & Ivy are my favorites of Jessa's names.  I would have considered the name Fern before I got into houseplants and promptly killed like a dozen of them.

[Cam]

My first name was so uncommon, I never met another person with the name until I was 19 and moved from the east part of the U.S. to California for a year. And I had a sister named Mary, the most common of girl names when she was born. Another sister’s name was created from my mom’s first and middle name and we know of no one else with that name. This sister acquired the nickname “Mickey” when very young and has been called that ever since. But it’s not a derivative of her given name, there’s no connection at all between the two. 

I hear my name a bit more these days, but it’s still not common. I hated it growing up but very much like it now. Still, I gave my son a common name. 

[PennySycamore]

@Cam,   One of my girls is named Mary and she was one of two Marys in her high school.  They were in the same class.  They both graduated from high school over 20 years ago.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Jessa’s style for boys are Elliot, Henry, and George. Therefore she would also like names like William, Theodore, Charles, Edward, Louis, Peter, Phillip. They are probably all contenders if they have another boy. 

[marmalade]

You named half the Royal family. 😂

[JermajestyDuggar]

19 minutes ago, marmalade said:

You named half the Royal family. 😂

Oh yes it’s obvious she likes those types of names. She says Ivy Jane is named after Lady Jane Grey! I think she like plant names for girls but I bet her second favorite type of names for girls would be found in the royal family. Names like Charlotte for example. But I think if she has another girl, she will stick with the plant theme. 

[marmalade]

Yeah, they called Lady Jane Grey a Christian martyr. Nah, she was a pawn, nothing more. She just happened to be Protestant. Ben's historical knowledge is colored with a very fundie slant. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by marmalade

[KnittingOwl]

Poor Spurgeon. I wonder if he will change his name when he’s older. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

25 minutes ago, KnittingOwl said:

Poor Spurgeon. I wonder if he will change his name when he’s older. 

If he turns out to be very fundie, I would say no. His name would be a badge of honor in those circles. Plus there’s another Spurgeon in fundieland besides him. 

[marmalade]

The Seewald kids are being raised in isolation, only seeing other kids of like-minded parents (Jessa's siblings). It would be a miracle if any of them defected. They're basically marginally better educated Rod kids. 

[Melissa1977]

Agustine sounds very outdated to me (in Spain, all Agustina and Agustín are elders).  In addition, it sounds very Catholic. It's surprising that Jessa choose that name. 

[AprilQuilt]

42 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

Agustine sounds very outdated to me (in Spain, all Agustina and Agustín are elders).  In addition, it sounds very Catholic. It's surprising that Jessa choose that name. 

It's a perfect fit for a Seewald boy, to me - Augustine was a great theologian, hugely shaping early Christian thought, and was instrumental in converting England/the Anglo Saxons to Christianity. I've noticed the Seewalds tend to choose inspiring English religious figures for their children's middle names (and tbf I fully believe that Jessa had some brief moment of weakness and deferred to Ben on going with Spurgeon as a first name rather than relegating to middle), eg Wilberforce, Spurgeon and Jane-as-in-Grey. I don't know if that's because Protestantism and reformed Christianity has deep roots in England before being exported to America or if they just think it's fancy. But this is definitely an opportunity for Ben to dork out.

[Kiki03910]

I brushed up on St Augustine (via Wikipedia; I'm lazy). He certainly had a lot of thoughts about penises.

[lumpentheologie]

1 hour ago, AprilQuilt said:

Augustine was a great theologian, hugely shaping early Christian thought, and was instrumental in converting England/the Anglo Saxons to Christianity.

Just fyi those are two different St Augustines, it’s very confusing. The theologian was Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and the English one was Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604).  I’d guess Georgie is named after the theologian, since that’s Ben’s vibe and he’s seen as something like the grandfather of the Reformed churches since he came up with predestination. 

[AprilQuilt]

1 hour ago, lumpentheologie said:

Just fyi those are two different St Augustines, it’s very confusing. The theologian was Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and the English one was Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604).  I’d guess Georgie is named after the theologian, since that’s Ben’s vibe and he’s seen as something like the grandfather of the Reformed churches since he came up with predestination. 

haaa. I am useless. I honestly cannot keep the early church straight at all.

[Pecansforeveryone]

Thank you, @lumpentheologie, I had no idea there was a second Augustine , even with having a lot of experience with evangelical Christianity. It is almost certainly the second Augustine if he is the grandfather of Reformed theology. 

[SassyPants]

Poor choice for a middle name as the most famous of Augustines is associated with the RC faith. Maybe they should have gone with Canterbury. 

[QuiverFullofBooks]

11 hours ago, Kiki03910 said:

I brushed up on St Augustine (via Wikipedia; I'm lazy). He certainly had a lot of thoughts about penises.

Augustine referred to erections as “the resurrection of the flesh.”

[Dollypolly]

18 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

If he turns out to be very fundie, I would say no. His name would be a badge of honor in those circles. Plus there’s another Spurgeon in fundieland besides him. 

 

18 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

If he turns out to be very fundie, I would say no. His name would be a badge of honor in those circles. Plus there’s another Spurgeon in fundieland besides him. 

Who’s the other Spurgeon intrigued now