Counting On fans are expressing their sympathy for Jessa (Duggar) Seewald and husband Ben Seewald’s oldest son Spurgeon Elliot. The couple, who are also parents to Henry Wilberforce and newborn daughter Ivy Jane, welcomed Spurgeon in November of 2015, though some think that he got the short end of the stick when it comes to his unconventional name.
In a Reddit thread created last month, many fans are urging the parents to legally change their son’s name to Elliott Spurgeon to spare him from embarrassment later in life. Many are also using the threat to simply criticize the unusual naming choice.
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“I wish they would acknowledge their mistake and switch his first and middle names so he can legally be Elliott Spurgeon,” one person wrote. “Why not give him a name he won’t be embarrassed about for the rest of his life? And they can continue to use Spurgey as a nickname at home if they really wanted to.”
“If Spurgeon ever attends school, I’d almost guarantee that at some point he’s going to just tell people that he goes by Elliot,” another wrote. “I can only imagine how rough public school would be for a kid named Spurge.”
Several more suggested that “when he gets older, he’ll end up going by his middle name.”
“Henry and Ivy are a great sibling name set,” commented another. “Spurgie really got screwed.”
Shortly after welcoming Spurgeon, their first child, the couple had revealed that they had chosen the unusual moniker to pay homage to Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, who lived from the mid to late 1800s, as well as Christian missionaries Jim and Elisabeth Elliot.
“He had a big impact on our lives,” Ben said of Spurgeon in a video released after his son’s birth. “His writings and his sermons and books are still around today. They just continued to impact many, many people.”
“[Jim] died on the mission field,” he continued. “His wife…she actually went back to the tribe after her husband’s death. She continued to take the Gospel there.”
For comparison, Seewald and her husband had a similar name process when it came to name son Henry, who arrived in February of 2017. The couple drew inspiration from Matthew Henry, a minister and author, and abolitionist William Wilberforce when it came to their second son’s name.
Meanwhile, they opted to go a more unconventional route with their daughter, who they welcomed on May 26 of this year. Her first name, Ivy, has no direct religious ties, and they revealed that they chose the name because they “just liked” it. Her middle name, Jane, pay homage to Lady Jane Grey, who was nominal Queen of England for just nine days in 1553.
