Nighy's name is similar to famous American engineer and television host Bill Nye. Nighy has admitted that in the past, he had disappointed his daughter's friends for not being the same man. He finally got to meet him in 2015 at Cafe Fiorello located in New York City. Nighy was happy to finally meet him stating, "He was very gracious and we had a laugh, and he'd had this conversation with people same as I had, so it was quite funny to finally be united."