Neither did we!
Guess who finally re-released their last name. Barbie!
Barbie has been around for decades, but with a last name to stick to the iconic doll series for the modern age, it seems to make her more relatable. This seemingly small piece of info has caused a bit of a stir with questions of has it always been her last name or is this a name just recently worked in?
It turns out, Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. She is named after creator Ruth Handler’s own daughter Barbara. Another fun fact, Ken has a last name too - Carson after Handler's son!
Her full name always existed, it was in an old novel published by Random House in the 1960s. The series of novels about Barbie revealed her parents' names, George and Michael Roberts. They hail from Willows, Wisconsin (fictional). In 1999 the story expanded to share that Barbie attended Willows High School.
Handler debuted the Barbie doll in New York at the American International Toy Fair in 1959, making her a staple in little girls lives. Since Barbie's debut, she and her friends have assumed a variety of inspirations, shades, and styles.
This includes numerous celebrity-inspired dolls, diverse Barbie and Ken dolls with different skin tones, body types and hairstyles which also includes the first hijab-wearing Barbie inspired by Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad in 2017. Their International Women's Day collection of inspiring women launched this past March.
So why is everyone so excited by the information now?
On April 10 Barbie tweeted a photo to celebrate National Siblings Day with the last name Roberts. The news created its own Twitter Storm since it was a surprise to many.
Of course, this seems to be a branding decision for this year as National Siblings day has also been around awhile and the full names of the dolls were already released. Although the surprise about the reintroduction of the last name into the modern area is because it was lost amongst everything else Barbie has done. Goes to show things culturally forgotten and remembered are just as surprising.
As for National Siblings Day, it was founded by the New Yorker Claudia Evart in 1995. She founded the day due to the sad fact that both of her siblings had died in separate occurring accidents.
She created the Siblings Day Foundation which included the establishment of National Siblings Day and she picked April 10 which was her sister Lisette’s birthday, according to National Day Calendar.
The reintroduction of Barbie's last name "Roberts," is tied into themes of family togetherness, one of the many important values for the doll to give to the children that play with Barbie.
Although Barbie hasn't been without her own controversy, which includes the possibility (in older skinnier models) of making children have eating disorders since they aren't set to actual human body dimensions, according to the Daily Mail.
In recent years the Barbie doll series has been trying to fix the effects of negative impressions the doll has on children, taking strides in progressive doll features. Barbie "Roberts," and her celebration of National Siblings Day is a good impression and certainly the makers of the Iconic toy work hard to add more inclusive additions to the series.
Did you know Barbie's full name was Barbie Millicent Roberts?
Mattel’s hijab-wearing Barbie replica of Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad has arrived