‘I’m just Ken,’ Ryan Gosling famously laments in Greta Gerwig’s hit 2023 film, Barbie.
The Hollywood star brought Mattel’s iconic Ken doll to life in the film, and had us all proudly proclaiming that we are ‘kenough’ for months afterwards.
But it turns out that we still have a lot to learn about Barbie’s male counterpart.
As the toy approaches its 65th anniversary, there’s been a lot of chatter about him, and it seems many fans are only just discovering that he’s not, in fact, just Ken…
That’s actually his nickname.
What’s Ken’s real name?
Ken’s full name is Kenneth Sean Carson.
And for those who were unaware, Barbie also has a full name, too – Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Mattel’s founders, Ruth Handler and Elliot Handler, named both the dolls after their children, Barbara and Kenneth Handler.
The surnames and middle names were shared in a series of novels by Bette Lou Maybee, published by Random House in the 1960s.
In the books, Barbie and Ken live in the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, and attend Willows High School.
Did you know Ken’s real name?
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Yes
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No
Kenneth Handler, who passed away in 1994, previously spoke about the differences between himself and his namesake in an interview with The Los Angeles Times.
‘Ken doll is Malibu,’ he said in 1989. ‘He goes to the beach and surfs. He is all these perfect American things.’
Kenneth, in comparison, lived in New York’s Greenwich Village and always felt he was more of a ‘nerd’.
He discussed his love of playing piano and watching films with subtitles and claimed that, unlike Ken, who was loved by the ladies, the girls at his school thought he was a ‘jerk’.
This comes as Mattel prepares to enter ‘a new era’ for Ken, with the Barbie brand teasing something new coming on social media.
As the toy turns 65 in March 2026, Ken is going to be ‘trying 65 new things’, according to a post on Instagram.
A video shared by the brand shows a montage of Ken at the beach, saying goodbye to the sea as he heads off for ‘new beginnings’.
It’s unclear as to whether this means a new range of Ken dolls is on the horizon, but it would follow a few recent Barbie launches.
Mattel recently debuted the first-ever autistic Barbie and created a Barbie with Type 1 Diabetes, too.
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