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Jenna Bush Hager is finally sharing the alias the Secret Service assigned her during her father’s presidency — and the story behind it has fans thoroughly entertained.
Long before she became a beloved television personality greeting millions of Americans each morning, Bush Hager lived a very different kind of life — one that required a fake identity just to book a hotel room.
During the Sept. 23 episode of her show, the “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle” host decided it was finally time to “declassify” a secret she had kept for over two decades: the alias the U.S. Secret Service gave her when she was just 18 years old.
The name? Holly Crawford.
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“My name was Holly Crawford. I know, Holly sounds like a good time, doesn’t she?” Bush Hager told co-host Sheinelle Jones during the revealing segment.
A name Jenna Bush Hager didn’t choose herself
For anyone who has ever wondered what it might be like to grow up as the child of a sitting president, Bush Hager’s revelation offers a fascinating glimpse into the unique security measures that come with life in the First Family.
When your father is the President of the United States, as George W. Bush was from 2001 to 2009, even something as simple as checking into a hotel becomes a matter of national security protocol.
Bush Hager was refreshingly candid about her initial reaction to the assigned alias, admitting that at 18 years old, she “didn’t love that” name.
Of course, as she pointed out, she wasn’t exactly given a choice in the matter — the Secret Service made that decision for her.
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While she acknowledged she doesn’t actually know the official origin story, she had some theories that she shared with viewers.
“Crawford was the name where … my parents had the house [in Texas], but also holly bush. Holly. I don’t know. I just made that up,” Bush Hager explained, connecting the dots between the alias and her family’s famous Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, as well as the obvious play on her own last name.
“All I know is, if Holly Crawford shows up, she’s ready to order a margarita,” Bush Hager joked, giving fans a hint of the spirited young woman she was during those White House years.
Will the real Holly Crawford please stand up?
A clip from the revealing moment was shared on Instagram, and the response proved that Bush Hager wasn’t the only one sporting the name Holly Crawford.
“I AM HOLLY CRAWFORD!!! And I don’t think the secret service did you any favors back in the day. Oh, the stories. I could have used your help to get out of some stuff! Roll Tide from the real Holly Crawford!” one user commented under the video.
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The coincidences didn’t stop there. Another commenter chimed in with an even more ironic connection to the story.
“We’re destined to be friends. I’m Holly Bush Crawford,” another user wrote, revealing that her actual middle name made the connection to Bush Hager’s alias even more remarkable.
Secret Service code names are a presidential tradition
The alias Bush Hager used for hotel bookings was separate from her official Secret Service code name, which she revealed during a 2020 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
During that interview, Bush Hager shared that her code name was Twinkle — a far cry from the more incognito “Holly Crawford.”
According to NBC, Secret Service code names have been a tradition since the early 1900s “for security purposes during times when electronic communications weren’t encrypted.”
While modern communications are now encrypted, the tradition has continued, becoming one of the more intriguing aspects of presidential security culture.
In fact, the Bush family had their own collection of code names during their time in the White House.
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George W. Bush went by Tumbler and later Trailblazer, while former First Lady Laura Bush was known as Tempo. Bush Hager’s twin sister, Barbara Bush, was assigned the code name Turquoise, per NBC.
