Pregnant Woman Says Boyfriend Hid that Baby Name Has a Tie to His Ex, Then Finds Out His ‘Entire Family Knew’

A pregnant woman says she was blindsided after learning that the baby name she and her boyfriend chose is the same as his former girlfriend’s — and that his family appeared to know the connection all along.

The 27-year-old shared her story on Reddit, explaining that she has been dating her 30-year-old boyfriend for three years and is now 32 weeks pregnant. Early in the pregnancy, the couple agreed on the name “Lila,” which she says she immediately adored for being “soft, simple, warm.”

Her excitement changed overnight when her boyfriend’s sister posted an old throwback photo of him with his ex on Instagram. The caption read, “Back when he and Lila were obsessed with each other lol.”

“I felt my stomach drop,” she wrote. She messaged his sister right away to confirm whether the ex’s name was Lila but says she got no response.

When her boyfriend came home, she asked him about it directly. “He went silent, then admitted yes,” she wrote — adding that Lila was his ex of five years, the woman he nearly proposed to and struggled to get over after they split.

The woman says she was devastated that he never told her the name’s history. When she asked why he’d been willing to name their daughter after someone he once loved, he brushed it off. “He said he didn’t think it mattered” and that “it’s just a name.”

But she doesn’t believe it was that simple. “When I suggested it, nostalgia hit him like a truck and he didn’t tell me,” she wrote. What hurt even more, she added, was realizing that his family seemingly knew the name’s link and stayed quiet.

Now, she says, she can’t look at baby items with the name on them without feeling overwhelmed. She described feeling “tricked” and “stupid,” and said her boyfriend has dismissed her reaction as overdramatic and refused to apologize.

She asked other users whether this was something to end the relationship over or if pregnancy hormones were amplifying her emotions.

In the comments, many agreed that her boyfriend should have been honest from the start and encouraged her to choose a different name if she can’t separate it from his past.

“The baby isn’t born yet so just pick a different name… change the baby’s name and co-parent,” one person wrote, criticizing the sister’s post as unnecessary and pointed.

Another commenter urged her to step back and reassess the relationship before the baby arrives, writing, “Baby isn’t named yet and you aren’t married yet. Yet it is a great time to rethink things.”