One of the most common questions I get from people who are new to my site is “Who is Barb? Is Barb the same person as Haydan? Or, do you have two children?”
I have one daughter. Her name is Haydan and she is eight. Haydan decided a while back that the name we had chosen for her at birth wasn’t a “cool name.” She asked me why her dad and I got to choose her name and why she had little influence in the matter.
I tried to explain that parents’ choose their children’s names when they are born. She wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t understand why parents’ get to choose the kids’ names! It’s MY name, I should get to choose it!” she exclaimed.
I asked Haydan what name she would have preferred we chose for her at birth, and she responded with: “Barb. I like the name Barb, and I think I’d like to permanently change my name to’Barb’.”
Well, seeing this was a battle we decided wasn’t worth fighting, my husband and I decided we would roll with it. I mean, kids do a lot of weird shit, and we knew this was something that was surely not going to last.
And we were right.. “Barb” didn’t last, it evolved….
“Barb” came home from school one day and told us that she’d found out that there were OTHER PEOPLE in the world with the name “Barb.” She couldn’t believe it.
After sitting on it for approximately…mmm…5 minutes, she decided to change her name again.
She proudly walked up to Justin and I and said: “I’ve given it some more thought, and going forward, I would still like to be called “Barb,” but, I’d like to also include my real middle name.”
Well, little “Barb’s” real middle name just so happens to be “MARLEY“….
My husband, Justin, and I died laughing.
‘Barb’ did NOT get it.
“So, let me get this straight, going forward, you would like to be referred to as… “Barb Marley“? I asked.
“Yes, that is correct. That is a name that no one else has. I met someone’s grandma at school and her name was ‘Barb,’ but I have never met someone named ‘Barb Marley!'” she explained.
So, we stuck with it. We told “Barb Marley” that at professional establishments like school, the doctor, Chuck E Cheese, and when crossing the border into any other country, she must go by her legal name of “Haydan,” however, everywhere else, she can go by “Barb” or “Barb Marley.”
And honestly, it just stuck.
Justin calls her “Barb Marley,” I call her “Barb Marley” or just “Barb” and many of our friends and family members do, too.
It is off-the-wall, and we are aware of that, but life is short and if my little nut wants to be called “Barb Marley,” well, so be it.
So, there you have it, the story of how “Barb Marley” came to be.
Barb has recently decided that she wants to be a blogger, appropriately “Barb the Blogger,” you can follow along with ‘Barb’ on Facebook.
When this originally happened, I actually wrote a post about it for my friend, Dr. Psych Mom that she published on her site.
To show Barb and I your support, every click on this brown banner below helps my page more than you know! Just a click is all it takes!
