Couple with the same first and last name to wed

posted by Dan Boniface

7 months ago

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - It's not too unusual to hear stories of married couples who met online. But it is unusual when that couple that meets online and marries also has the same name.

In this case, it's a guy from Texas named Kelly Hildebrandt and a gal from Florida named Kelly Hildebrandt.

In three months, they're getting married.

"We get a couple of the same reactions," the Florida Kelly said, "Usually, it's like that's so awesome and totally different, I've never heard a story like that, or. . . (stunned look)."

Kelly Hildebrandt met Kelly Hildebrandt when Kelly the girl looked up her own name on Facebook.

"I was like, 'I wonder if there's any other Kelly Hildebrandts on Facebook'," she explained. "So, I searched my own name and he's the only one that came up. And actually, in the picture, he didn't have his shirt on, and I'm like, 'oh, he's cute!'"

And the Kelly in Texas was also intrigued.

"She started off, 'hey, I see we have the same name, and I thought it was kinda cool, so I wanted to say hi, I guess.' Lots of laughs," he said.

Three weeks after their first online encounter, Kelly, the boy from Texas, decided to fly to south Florida, and see Kelly, the girl, in person.

"Me and my mom were at the airport," she recounted, "And I was like, he's coming down the escalator, so I turned away."

Eight months after that innocent Facebook message, Kelly proposed to Kelly, and this October, they'll become Kelly Hildebrandt squared.

"I felt like there was a good potential, a good possibility, before I ever came out, to meet her in person," he said, "that this could be the girl I was going to marry."

The Kelly Hildebrandts don't think having the same first and last name is a bad thing. But it is confusing, now that Kelly the boy, has moved in.

"He's even already got some mail coming in and we don't know," she said, "We have to open everything. Because we don't know who's mail is whose."

The pair say they've looked back through ancestry records 250 years to ensure they're not related.