Barbara A. Lewis: Hello. My name is Barbara Anderson-Lewis. I'd like to explain how I received my first name Barbara. As a young man, my father spent time in Fish Lake Mountain in central Utah as a sheepherder. In the long, lonely nights he studied astronomy, history and read English and Scottish literature. He particularly enjoyed one old ballad, The Ballad of Barbara Allen. It's an old, Scottish ballad and a man who dies for love of a hard hearted woman, Barbara Allen. When I read the poem, I didn't know if I wanted to be named after a heartbreaking woman, however, I understood my father chose the name because he was somewhat of a romantic, and he loved the name of Barbara.

So I decided to look up the origin of my name Barbara hoping for a lovely definition such as grace or courage. To my dissatisfaction, I discovered that the origin of the name Barbara was the same as a barbarian. Now that was worse than a heartless woman. I finally received a more satisfactory meaning for my name when I was teaching fifth grade early in my career. My students liked to call me Barbie doll, Barbie being a derivative of Barbara. Now I found that far more flattering than a heartbreaking woman or a wild barbarian. Even though I bear no resemblance to themselves beautiful, exaggerated Barbie doll, I felt the meaning of my name was finally vindicated.