Why Nikki Haley Gave Her Husband A New Name

Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina and 2024 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, quickly became a household name nationwide during her campaign, earning both fans and critics. In late December 2023, polling showed that Haley was closing in on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in the important state of New Hampshire. Shortly thereafter, she raised eyebrows by failing to cite slavery as a cause of the American Civil War.

But Haley also caught the public's attention for another reason: her relationship with her longtime husband, Michael Haley. The thing is, his name isn't actually Michael. It's William, Bill for short. Or, rather, it used to be William.

Have you ever met someone and thought, "Gee, you don't look like a John. You look more like an Andrew to me"? Well, that's essentially how Nikki felt about William Haley's name when they were first dating, according to a recently-resurfaced clip from her 2012 memoir, "Can't Is Not an Option: My American Story." But rather than getting used to the name as many would have done, Nikki simply started calling her beau by a different name.

In an excerpt from Nikki Haley's 2012 memoir "Can't Is Not an Option" that found its way to X, formerly Twitter, Haley discussed how her once-boyfriend, Bill, "became South Carolina First Gentleman Michael Haley." She says that once the two had begun dating during their college days, "I looked at him one day and said, 'What's your name?'" To which, of course, her confused partner responded, "You know it's Bill." Pressing further, Nikki told him he simply did not look like a Bill and asked his full name. The answer? William Michael Haley.

From that point on, Nikki started calling her boyfriend Michael. And then her friends started to call him Michael. Eventually, "Bill's" own friends also leaned into the whole Michael thing too, and before he knew it, he was a person who went by his middle name. "He looks like a Michael," Nikki says matter-of-factly in her book. And so Michael he became.

Nikki Haley renamed her husband pic.twitter.com/meUNigI54l

— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) January 3, 2024

Was he bothered by this name change? Apparently not; while he does not appear to have given a statement about the circumstances of his name change, Michael still became Nikki's Husband by marrying her in a beautiful ceremony at St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist Church in Hilton Head in 1996. But that doesn't mean others don't have strong opinions about how Michael became Michael.

While fans of Nikki Haley seem to feel her insistence that her partner change his name is a sign of leadership skills, her critics claim it proves she is power-drunk. Comments on social media have shown the wide range of reactions to "Bill" becoming "Michael" at Nikki's behest. One person shared their damning take on X, stating, "That seems... abusive." Meanwhile, some feel Nikki's renaming of her husband was positive, saying, "That's a power move."

It's worth noting that Nikki may not have felt calling her husband by his middle name would be seen as strange because she herself has long used her middle name as her first. Born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, the former ambassador has chosen to go by "Nikki" for most of her life. And, of course, Haley is her married name.

However one might feel about this name-change revelation, one thing is true: the couple has thus far passed the test of time. Together since 1989, Nikki and Michael Haley have been through a great deal together, from raising two children to becoming the first family of South Carolina to Michael's deployment to Afghanistan. Nikki running for the most sought-after residence in America's political world, The White House, just marks another milestone in their relationship.