'He looks like a Michael': Nikki Haley renamed her husband before running for office

In her 2012 book Can't Is Not an Option: My American Story, then-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley explained how she renamed her husband, William Michael Haley.

Vox senior politics correspondent Andrew Prokop tweeted an excerpt from the book where Haley recalled how she simply refused to call her now-husband by his first name during their courtship and opted instead to use his middle name while instructing her friend circle to do the same. The New Republic referred to the factoid as a "true Selina Meyers move," in reference to the main character portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the popular political comedy show "Veep."

"You may be wondering how 'Bill' became South Carolina First Gentleman Michael Haley," she wrote. "After we started dating, I looked at him and said, 'what's your name?'"

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Haley explained that her then-boyfriend said "you know it's Bill," prompting her to respond "you just don't look like a Bill." When she learned his middle name was Michael, she simply started using his middle name instead.

"From that point on, I started calling him Michael, and all my friends did the same. When he transferred to Clemson his sophomore year, my friends became his friends, and before we knew it, he was universally known as Michael," she wrote. "Everyone who knew him before I did knows him as Bill, and everyone who met him after I did knows him as Michael."

"He looks like a Michael," she added.

For her part, Haley also uses her own middle name as a primary identifier. She was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and has gone by her middle name in her public life (Haley is her married name). However, former President Donald Trump has since given his former UN ambassador one of his signature nicknames, calling her "Nikki New Taxes" in reference to her alleged support of a gas tax increase in the Palmetto State during her time as governor. Haley asserts that Trump's claims about her record are false.

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