‘Stranger Things' star Gaten Matarazzo meets superfans' baby named after him

Gaten Matarazzo has met countless fans, likely making the many faces he sees and names he hears difficult to remember.

Except, of course, for the one who is also named Gaten.

Matarazzo, a 22-year-old actor who plays Dustin on the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things,” was introduced last weekend to Gaten Dollarhyde, a one-year-old from Kentucky who was named after him.

Hundreds of fans lined up to take photos with Matarazzo on Sunday at Epic Con’s The Upside Down, a fan convention in Georgia dedicated to the show. At the very end of the line was Jacob and Cristy Dollarhyde, super fans who made the six-plus hour drive so Gaten could meet Gaten.  

“I think it’s something that, even for [Matarazzo], it’s gonna be hard to ever forget that moment,” Jacob said. “To be such an inspiration to somebody that they would name their kid after them, for him I think it was like, ‘Oh wow! I had that impact on somebody that there is now another Gaten in the world.'”

There were other names that Jacob and Cristy wrote down on a list for consideration -- no, they were not Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Will or Eleven. But it was Gaten, the name of the actor who portrayed their favorite character on the show and who they said exhibited kindness and respect when the cameras were off, that remained at the top.

“We just agreed on it from the get-go,” Cristy said. “So, we just went with it. We really loved it, and we really liked Gaten as a person in general.”

It was nearly two years ago that Jacob and Cristy, six months pregnant at the time, first met Matarazzo. They drove to Pittsburgh where he was attending a fan convention to tell him they would be naming their son after him.

“He lit up instantly,” Jacob said. “The glow was real, and he got super excited. He said, ‘Really? You’re not kidding?’ And he said, ‘I’ve never known another Gaten other than my dad.’”

"He was the first person we told," Cristy added. "So, it was very special in that sense because we wanted him to be the first person to know that our son was going to have his name. His overall reaction let me know that I made the right choice of naming our son that because he was genuinely happy about it. He was shocked. He was sweet."

Matarazzo then signed an autograph for his future namesake. “To Gaten,” he wrote across the top, signing his name at the bottom. He flipped the photo over and added a message on the back that included, “I simply can’t wait to meet you.”

Matarazzo hugged Jacob and Cristy before they left.

“He told us, ‘Please, whenever he’s born, as soon as you can find me at a convention, I would love to meet him,’” Jacob said. “And we made that promise that we would find him.”

And they kept it. It just took a little longer than expected.

Gaten was born in March 2023, joining older siblings Grayson and Emma. He wouldn’t meet the man he was named after until he was 19 months old. While waiting for Matarazzo to make a local appearance, Jacob and Cristy took their son to meet other “Stranger Things” cast members.

They soon learned “Baby Gaten” already had a reputation amongst the cast and crew.

When they met Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas, he asked to take video of Gaten and sent it to Matarazzo. When they met Gabriella Pizzolo, who plays Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie, she asked to hold Gaten and take a picture with him. When they met Millie Bobby Brown, the star of the show who plays Eleven, she shouted, ‘That’s Baby Gaten?!'"

“Even she knew!” Jacob said. “She grabbed his little belly right before we took a photo. Even small things like that from each of the cast members, it just lets you know it’s something Gaten was excited about because he went and told these guys he works with that there’s a Baby Gaten.”

Then Gaten himself got to meet Gaten.

With the final season of “Stranger Things” being filmed, Epic Cons gathered 18 current and former cast members at the convention. Fans lined up in Jackson, Georgia, -- the filming site of the show's Hawkins, Indiana, location -- to get autographs, take photo ops and have series-themed meet-and-greets with their favorite cast members.

That included Jacob, Cristy and Gaten -- who wore a “Super Gaten” T-shirt from his Super Mario themed first birthday party.

Jacob entered the enclosed photo tent and approached Matarazzo first, holding the note he wrote to Gaten before he was born.

“He squinted for a moment and within no time he said, ‘I wrote this,’” Jacob said. “It was very emotional in his voice. Then he said, ‘Is he here?’ His voice was kind of cracking, and I said, ‘Yeah, man, he’s here.’”

Baby Gaten then walked in, holding Cristy’s hand. Matarazzo knelt to the floor to chat and play with the first non-relative named Gaten he had ever encountered. The two played with a Dustin plush toy before posing for a photo together.

“It was like he made him a new little buddy,” Jacob said. “And it looked like our son was really enjoying his little one-year-old self.”

Added Cristy: “It was very emotional. To see Gaten light up when he saw our son was everything I could have imagined and more.”

Matarazzo thanked Jacob and Cristy for naming their son after him, telling them it means a lot to him.

“He said, ‘Would you bring him back to meet me again? I would like to see him grow up,’” Jacob said. “And we want him to share in Gaten’s stages of life.”

Gaten then said goodbye to Gaten, capping an experience that -- like the name they share -- will never be forgotten.  

“We love the uniqueness of Gaten’s name, along with the fact that there is a genuine fellow attached to it,” Jacob said. “I’ve been to a lot of conventions and I’ve met a lot of people, and if I could do it all again, there’s one person I would name my son after, and it’s Gaten Matarazzo.”