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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Same-name couple to wed

Sarah Larimer Associated Press

MIAMI – This October, Kelly Hildebrandt will vow to share her life with a man who already shares her name.

This is no joke. Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt, 20, and Kelly Carl Hildebrandt, 24, expect just over 100 guests at a ceremony at the Lighthouse Point Yacht & Racquet Club in South Florida, where they will become husband and wife.

“He is just everything that I’ve ever looked for,” she said in an interview. “There’s always been certain qualities that a guy has to have. And he has all the ones I could think of – and more.”

Their modern romance was a match made in cyberspace. She was curious and bored one night last year, so she plugged her name into the popular social networking Web site Facebook just to see if anyone shared it.

At the time, Kelly Hildebrandt, of Lubbock, Texas, was the only match. So she sent him a message.

“She said ‘Hi. We had the same name. Thought it was cool,’ ” Kelly Carl Hildebrandt said. “I thought she was pretty cute.”

But there were also concerns. “I thought, man, we’ve got to be related or something,” he said.

For the next three months the two exchanged e-mails. Before he knew it, occasional phone calls turned into daily chats. He visited her in Florida after a few months and “fell head over heels.”