Because her name was originally Kelly (or Shelly, in Europe). She was created in 1995 and most of us know her as "Kelly". Changing her name was yet another stupid decision on Mattel's part.
True, it is. Feel free to call her Chelsea if you want. :) It's not really a bad name in itself, it's just a bizarre name change (especially since Kelly/Chelsea has quite a large fanbase among collectors). Most of us prefer to call her Kelly, though. I guess old habits die hard.
Ever so often Mattel releases a new little sister for Barbie. Sadly, I am old enough now that I remember welcoming all 4 of them. Over time, Mattel tweeks the dolls a bit. Like Barbie when introduced was originally a teen and she has been aged to an adult now. Skipper was originally a light blonde, now she's brunette. Stacie had a wider head and then next doll in the line was Kelly. When she was introduced she was a toddler named Kelly. I know because I bought the doll of her in a crib. Later, they aged her to about 6 yrs old to make room for Barbie's youngest infant sister, Krissy..eons later in 2010, Kelly grew two inches taller and was renamed Chelsea. Us 90's kids and beyond still call her Kelly because we grew up with that name and it's hard to adjust but also, I'm not calling her Chelsea because I think it was a dumb move by Mattel to up and rename her for no reason.
posted over a year ago
Maybe they renaming her to Chelsea as that name sound more modern than Kelly. But the name Kelly is still a beautiful name though
Are we 100% sure Barbie is currrently an adult, though? I know that she was introduced as a 17-year-old back when the line launched in 1959, but since the 2000s, she's been considerably aged up (that's when I started following the franchise, so that's the starting point I'm most familiar with), but recent years seem to have aged her back down to a teenager again. I'm fairly sure Mattel has regressed her relationship with Ken back to the point where you can tell there's something going on between them, but they're not officially dating yet.
That's because in other movies her name is Kelly so we like to call her Kelly Mattel can't change our cutie's name and we like to call her Kelly sweet name !!!