Halle Bailey Recalls Meeting Near-Name Twin Halle Berry for the First Time: 'She an Angel!'
Halle Bailey said her parents originally wanted to name her Hailey, but the name Hailey Bailey "wouldn't have worked"
Halle Bailey is well aware that her name sounds similar to Halle Berry.
During The Little Mermaid star's appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark Thursday, Bailey, 23, was asked about the similarities between her name and the Moonfall star's by cohosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
"Yes well my family, we've always loved Halle Berry. I mean, she's amazing," Bailey said of her almost namesake, when Ripa, 52, asked whether her parents "contemplated" the coincidence when naming her. "And originally when I was a baby, they wanted to name me Hailey but my last name is Bailey. So that wouldn't have worked."
"And they they ultimately decided Halle, and it's very similar to Halle Berry," she added. "But there's no one else I would rather have a similar name to cause she's so cool."
Bailey added that she did get to meet Berry, 56, at March's 95th Academy Awards ceremony, during which both actresses appeared at various points in the broadcast.
"She was so kind to me. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I love you!' " Bailey told the cohosts about her interactions with the Hollywood veteran. "She's been always really supportive to me over social media, so we've had a few inbox interactions but that was my first time meeting her. And she's like, an angel."
Bailey's Live with Kelly and Mark appearance Thursday was not the first time her name's similarity to Berry's has popped to the top of either actress' mind. Back in 2021, a Twitter user mistakenly responded to a post from the Oscar winner and wrote "Can't wait to see you under da sea," alongside a mermaid emoji.
Berry, who does not appear in Disney's live-action re-imagining of The Little Mermaid, wrote a humorous response to the mistaken fan on Twitter.
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"… wrong Halle lol," she wrote at the time. "I can't wait to see her too though!"
Bailey confessed in a March Instagram Live stream that "so many people don't know how to pronounce [her first name] correctly" while fielding questions from fans.
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She took time during the livestream to clear up confusion regarding the pronunciation after a fan asked how to correctly say her name.
"You know, I really appreciate you asking, because so many people don't know how to pronounce it correctly," she said in the video. "It's literally just Halle. It's simple, it's easy: It's Halle. Not Holly, not Haley. It's Halle. Okay? Thank you."
The Little Mermaid swims into theaters May 26.
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