२६ जानेवारी, २०२४

"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."

Wrote Nikki Haley, quoted in "Not Feeling Your Partner’s Name? Just Change It. When Nikki Haley decided that her future husband, Bill, looked more like a Michael, a Michael he became. How unusual are name-change proclamations in the world of love?" (NYT).

The quote is in her 2012 memoir, "Can’t Is Not an Option."

She says she didn't think the man who would become her husband looked "like a Bill," but Michael wasn't a name picked out of the blue. His name is William Michael Haley, and she decided to go with the middle name. If I'd done that with my first husband (which I might have done because his first name is the same name as my father's first name), then both my husbands would have the same name (albeit with different spellings), not that either of them looked like my idea of what a person with that name would look like.

What's the big deal about calling your loved one by his middle name (or last name or a nickname)? It's a really minor issue. And why was this story printed in the New York Times yesterday? I think they're seeing Nikki Haley about to drop out of the news and they're dumping the best of the stories they'd generated to be dispersed over a period of months if she'd continued as a candidate.

Read the old memoir and see what can be made into something... eh... don't bother.... But if she'd become the candidate, this could have been big. This arrogant monster — out of some frivolous delusion about how men named "Bill" are somehow supposed to look — deprived a man of his name. And he just took it. So emasculating! 

What's the more masculine name — Michael or Bill?

४७ टिप्पण्या:

gilbar म्हणाले...

her First husband?? How MANY Times, has see been married?
How MANY Names, has Nimarata used?
WHO IS THIS PERSON

someone (a "Ms Halley", i thought) DEMANDED that ANYONE posting on the intertubes using an alias be:
Hung, Drawn, Quartered, Shot, and then Imprisoned.
I wonder what "Ms Halley" would think about this conartist not only using fake names for herself,
but for her HUSBANDS??!!?

Michael Fitzgerald म्हणाले...

Quien es Mas macho? Michael

CLamp म्हणाले...

To avoid "Bill Haley and the Comets"?

Kevin म्हणाले...

I assumed they changed it because the name Bill Haley (and the Comets) is so indelibly etched into the history of rock and roll, and if he was going to be in the public eye that might be awkward

mccullough म्हणाले...

Not surprising she fucked around behind his back.

A guy who lets his wife change his name should be called Neal.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Michael isn't always a male name. For example, in French, we have Michel and Michelle. Different written forms, granted, but spoken there's only the slightest difference. Depending on your regional accent, you might stress the first syllable ever so slightly in the case of a male and stress the second in the case of a female. However, the English name sometimes refers to a female, as in Princess Michael of Kent (not a given name, really, but a matrimonial one) and actress Michael Learned.

Bill doesn't cross sexual lines, not in the sane world at any rate.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

My middle name is the same as my little brother's first name. So going by my middle name would be confusing. There's nothing more common than a pet name, but switching to the middle name if you like it better is probably a close second.

Not seeing the news here. It's a cute story, probably intended to make her seem warm and cuddly next to meany orange Donald.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

I had two uncles Bob, one Chester and the other Gilbert.

who-knew म्हणाले...

Bill is better than Michael but loses out to Mike.

Eric म्हणाले...

Does this mean that we're back to this shows that Nikki Haley is a bad person, because I thought that it didn't mean that any more?

The NYT should publish a 2024 election fact sheet to help us keep up.

The Vault Dweller म्हणाले...

When I think of masculine characteristics I think of steadiness, reliability, and stoic competence. These are very boring when implemented correctly. Therefore, since Bill is more boring than Michael, I will say that Bill is more masculine.

Rocco म्हणाले...

Michael Corleone vs Bill S Preston, Esq (from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure). Madon! Easy choice.

BTW, Michael in both Italian and Sicilian is Michele. However, in The Godfather when Michael was hiding out in Sicily, they frequently called him Miguel.

Rocco म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Rocco म्हणाले...

Blogger tcrosse said...
“I had two uncles Bob, one Chester and the other Gilbert.”

So Bob’s your uncle. Twice.

Rocco म्हणाले...

My nephew was Frank Anthony {last name}, Jr. Growing up, he was always Tony. Once he entered the workforce, the first name on his HR form was Frank, so his boss kept calling him Frank, and it stuck.

Lilly, a dog म्हणाले...

One of those is my name, so that one.

The manliest name of all is Dick. Just think of all the famous Dicks that have touched our lives.

Mikey NTH म्हणाले...

I am a Michael and have often been mistaken for my cousin Bill.

"Mike" of that what you "Will".

Paddy O म्हणाले...

How about Steve?

John henry म्हणाले...

Made me think of this

Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy

John Henry

Kate म्हणाले...

It could've been worse. At least Michael isn't shortened to Mikki.

BarrySanders20 म्हणाले...

There's always Larry, Darrel, and Darrel.

Aggie म्हणाले...

My goodness, Ms Althouse, you've become quite jaded in your political outlook.

I think you might be close to the target, though.

GIANT Going Out Of Business Sale !! Everything must go !


Too bad, 'Bill Haley and the Commies' has a nice derisive ring to it.

robother म्हणाले...

What next, a NYT expose of the fact that there used to be three kkks in her name when she first ran for office in South Carolina?

Readering म्हणाले...

In my experience it's pretty common for people to go with their middle names and reduce the first name to the initial. A bigger issue I find is folks who insist you use the full first name and not a nickname like Bill or Mike. I just insist they not use --y. To me a child's name.

walter म्हणाले...

For a control freak who wants to remove anonymity from the web, Darling Nikki's kinda loose with names.

BG म्हणाले...

Way back in my German ancestry, quite a few relatives used their middle name instead of their first. There's no one alive today who can tell me why. At times it was a bit challenging filling out the family tree.

n.n म्हणाले...

A prelude and pretext to trans/sims. The same tale was published to normalize rent-a-wombs, human rites, political congruence, diversity, etc.

Rosalyn C. म्हणाले...

Apparently Nikki got called by her middle name as well. Her birth name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.

Iman म्हणाले...

Spread your wings for New Orleans
Carolina bluebird fly away
And take a message to Michael
Message to Michael
He sings each night in some cafe
In his search to find wealth and fame
I hear Michael has gone and changed his name


Don’t mess with Bill
No no no no!

Leland म्हणाले...

The more I learn about Nikki Haley, the more I don't like her.

Free Willy!

Howard म्हणाले...

"NOOO!!! You don't have to call me Johnson! My name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr. Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Junior; now you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr. . . but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"

rcocean म्हणाले...

Bill, Joe, Max, Greg. John, Kirk, Rock, Bob, Sam, Tom, Doug, good ol' punchy, short macho names.

Micheal = wimp. Mike = macho.

Old Hollywood knew this. And gave their stars short names. Except for WB, where you Humphrey Bogart and Erroll Flynn. But even then, Eddie Robinson got his name shortened to initials "E.G.".

The Beverly Hill Billies made fun of this by calling Ellie may's boyfriend "Dash Rip Rock"
Amd Homer finds success when he changes his name to "Max Power".

rcocean म्हणाले...

"Nikki" changed her name. Why couldn't michael?

SweatBee म्हणाले...

To answer the question, Bill is more masculine. I don't know any women named Bill, but I do know women named Mychal (In the Bible, King Saul had a daughter named Michal).

Gospace म्हणाले...

Names are a fascinating subject. Including the history of names. Middle names are a relatively recent invention in the world. And last names weren’t always fixed. Tracking generations in Scandinavia is loads of fun. Sven’s children were Svensdottir and Svenson. And Sven himself would be Ericsson…

In most of Europe last names came from a person’s trade or location and was passed on to children once established. So to this day if your surname is Thatcher, you know what one of your direct personal ancestors did for a living.

My eldest is called by his middle name because he has a suffix II at the end. My 4 other children by their full forename, no nicknames. I’ve been over this with many people- If I wanted to call Gerard Jerry, I’d have named him Jerry. People I have worked with over the years have learned that if they want my attention they have to address me by my actual name. Some learning the hard way as boxes tumble on them…

I call my wife the name she introduced herself to me as. No pet names, no dear or honey or sweetheart or anything. Seems each of her family members calls her something different. She was actually surprised that didn’t confuse me. There were multiple older family with either my first or middle name. I was used to it.

In the fairytales of old knowing the real name of a wizard or other magical person or creature gave you power over them. Seems to be a thing in all cultures. No clue why that would be…

Why do I call family, friends, and others by one name, the name they originally introduced themselves as? Two reasons. Respect- that’s their name. Second- if I had grown up when my children did I would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. Now on the spectrum. That diagnosis didn’t exist when I was young. You were autistic or you weren’t. I like proper labels for both people and things.

And clear easy to understand rules that are applied equally to everyone. Why I detest DemoncRAT politicians.

walter म्हणाले...

Readering said...
In my experience it's pretty common for people to go with their middle names and reduce the first name to the initial.
--
Pretentious bullshit.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Well, at least it was his middle name. I have a cousin whose given name was Maria- her third husband had her change her name to Valentina. I got a friend request from Facebook from her using the new name and the last name of the new husband and I had literally no clue who it was that had just sent the request. I ended up ignoring the request for 2 years before someone else in the family clued me in.

pacwest म्हणाले...

How about just using the name that he went by all his life? "I'm going to mary you first you need to change your name." doesn't bode that well for the future of that relationship.

wild chicken म्हणाले...

Carousel was a sad story to see as a little girl, but I had an instant crush on Gordon McCrae.

At 21 I ran into him at my riding teacher's house. Buying a horse or something.

He was nice but kinda fat.

Narr म्हणाले...

I knew a Jewish lady named Mykal (per SweatBee), and a guy named Harvey William [redacted] who everyone knew as Bill.

My late younger brother was named Gene Frederick [redacted] but the only people who called him Gene were his work colleagues. If one of them called and asked for Gene, we sometimes handed the phone to our mother, whose name was a homophone.

An aunt and one of her daughters had the same name, and they resolved the problem by calling my cousin George.

FWIW I don't find either Bill or Mike more masculine than the other NTTAWWT.

Jaq म्हणाले...

On the Importance of Being Michael

Dagwood म्हणाले...

Simp would have been easier for him to spell.

Rocco म्हणाले...

If he goes back to William (take that, Nimrata!) but shortens it to Will, would that be the Triumph of the Will?

rcocean म्हणाले...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoYsfbq3vMc

Josephbleau म्हणाले...

Who is this “Haley” you speak of?

Left Bank of the Charles म्हणाले...

“He might be a champ of the heavyweights
Or a feller that sells you glue
Or President of the United States
That'd be all right, too
His mother would like that
But he wouldn't be President unless he wanted to be
Not Bill!”

Rusty म्हणाले...

"Her name was McGill
And she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy."