
When a couple chose a name for their baby, they took inspiration from a movie they both liked. They didn’t think the baby name had any deeper meaning, but quickly realized how wrong they were. The man and woman both enjoyed a Western film with a character named Rebecca, so they decided that they would name their baby “Rebecca.” To their surprise, the man’s mom started sobbing in response to their baby name announcement.
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The man’s mom thanked him and hugged him — and he didn’t understand why.
Moved to tears, the man’s mom said “thank you over and over,” according to a Reddit post shared by one of her grandchildren. The grandchild said that their dad was “so confused” for several days. Although his mom shared why she was so happy about the name that day, the man still didn’t comprehend it. “She said she never thought she’d have a baby named after her,” the grandchild wrote.
Since his mom’s name was not Rebecca, the man “repeated the name to make sure she heard it right.” Even when he repeated the name, she continued to cry, thanking the couple for choosing the name and hugging them.
Later, the man heard someone call his mom by her full name.

A few days later, the man learned why his mom had such an emotional reaction to the baby name announcement. He didn’t know the reason for it until his mom told her sisters about the baby’s name, and in the process of congratulating her, they called her by her full name. “Rebecca was my granny’s middle name,” the grandchild wrote on Reddit.
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He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he chose the name because of a film that he liked.
Since choosing the name Rebecca was clearly such an honor to his mom, he didn’t tell her the real reason he chose the name. Instead, he “just went with it.” After the couple welcomed their children, they told the whole family this story about the interesting coincidence. They were also “warned never to tell granny because it would break her heart.”
The man’s mom died when her granddaughter Rebecca was 38.
No one told her that Rebecca was named after a character from a movie, rather than her grandmother. Reacting to the story, one Redditor called it “a happy little accident.”
Many Redditors saw nothing wrong with hiding the truth from the grandmother.
“This is definitely one of those cases where you tell a white lie and take the truth to the grave,” one person wrote. “It sounds like you guys overall had a good relationship with your grandma. I’m glad nobody slipped up at any point!”
Another person agreed: “What grandma doesn’t know doesn’t hurt her. And if it brought her some joy and comfort, that’s what’s important.”
Some wondered how the man didn’t know his mom’s middle name.
“How did he not know his own mother’s middle name?! That’s so strange to me,” one Redditor wrote.
However, many others had similar experiences when choosing names for their babies.
“By complete and utter accident, my child first and middle names are the exact same as my MIL’s mom’s two middle names,” another person said. “SO weird. It’s perfect.”
“My parents picked an old name that they liked for me,” a third person commented. “When I was born, everybody told them it was outdated and sounded like a grandma, and my grandfather was crying because it was the name of his mother.”
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.