Mindy Kaling picked a special middle name for her first child Katherine: Swati.
Swati is the name of Kaling's mother, Dr. Swati Chokalingam, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2012. As E! News previously reported, Kaling heard the news of her mother's passing the same day she was told The Mindy Project was picked up by Fox.
This isn't the only way the 38-year-old actress has honored her mother. During her lifetime, Chokalingam worked as an OBG/YN, which Kaling played on The Mindy Project.
"We were so thrilled for her," Ed Weeks, who plays Dr. Jeremy Reed on the show, said at the time of Kaling's pregnancy announcement. "The show started as a tribute to her mother, who very sadly passed away just as the show is being picked up, and it ends with her having a daughter of her own."
Kaling talked about her close relationship with her mother during an interview with NBC's Sunday Today With Willie Geist.
"My mom was incredibly fierce and so devoted to us, just loved us and really wanted us to be happy no matter what we did," she said. "My career choice was not something that she was familiar with and she was just so supportive of that," she says. "If I could give that to my child, just that open-mindedness, I'd be so happy."
Kaling gave birth to her daughter on Dec. 15. She has not revealed the identity of the child's father.