The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger Reveal Their Daughter is Named Nova

The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus and German actress Diane Kruger have revealed the name of their daughter is Nova Tennessee. Marvel fans, rejoice! Nova’s name has been a long-running mystery in The Walking Dead (and general Norman Reedus/Diane Kruger) fandom; she’s now three years old. Kruger revealed the name in an interview with PEOPLE, while reflecting on having a child later in life with Reedus, who has a fully-grown son, Mingus (22) with supermodel Helena Christensen.

As Diane Kruger explained, a major factor in naming her daughter was her own history of having a name that other children made fun of (“Diane” is not common in Germany): “I remember coming home crying because kids were making fun of my name.” It was only after Kruger learned the story of the Roman goddess Diana that she felt confident in her name. That experience made Kruger want to pay that sense of empowerment forward to her own daughter: 

“Nova in Latin means new beginning, and a nova star keeps changing and is reborn. And we love Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains; we do motorcycle trips there.”

Norman Reedus has made a second career lane for himself doing the travel series Ride, in which he films his motorcycle trips and visits various famous places, events, and people associated with biker culture. Clearly, the rides through the state of Tennessee left enough of an impression on Reedus and Kruger to name their child after it. 

TMZ approached Norman Reedus at the airport and inquired about why he and Kruger now feel comfortable discussing Nova’s name in public, after three years. Reedus was clearly not all that open about talking about it, but he did give a quick insight into their logic as parents, saying: “She’s three, she’s not a little baby anymore – she’s still a baby I mean – but you try to keep things as private as possible.”

As always, it’s a tricky thing to draw the line between where celebrity’s public and private lives begin and end. That line has only gotten more blurry in the age of influencers and social media, which is why it is so notable when a star like Norman Reedus (one of the biggest names in TV) chooses to go so far in the opposite direction. 

And as Marvel fans everywhere can probably agree, Norman Reedus’s geek cred just shot up even higher than anyone thought possible. 

The Walking Dead’s final season is on AMC.