Barney Stinson

Barney Stinson
How I Met Your Mother character
Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
First appearance	"Pilot"
Last appearance	"Last Forever"
Created by	Carter Bays Craig Thomas
Portrayed by	Neil Patrick Harris Tanner Maguire Riley Thomas Stewart
Information
Occupation	PLEASE (Provide Legal Exculpation And Sign Everything)
Family	Loretta Stinson (mother) Jerome Whittaker (father) Cheryl Whittaker (step-mother) James Stinson (maternal half-brother) Jerome "J. J." Whittaker, Jr. (paternal half-brother) Carly Whittaker (paternal half-sister)
Spouse(s)	Robin Scherbatsky (m. 2013-2016)
Significant other(s)	Shannon (ex-girlfriend) Nora (ex-girlfriend) Quinn Garvey (ex-fiancée) "#31" (daughter's mother)
Children	Ellie Stinson (daughter, born 2020)
Relatives	Tom (brother-in-law) Eli Stinson (nephew) Sadie Stinson (niece) Leslie (cousin) Frank (uncle) Cecil (cousin) Vic (uncle) Shelly (aunt) Jucaque (uncle) Pete (cousin) Mitch (cousin) Muriel (aunt)

Barnabus "Barney" Stinson is a fictional character portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris and created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother. One of the main characters, Barney uses many 'plays' in his 'playbook' to help him have sex with women. The character loves expensive suits, laser tag, alcohol and catchphrases, including "Suit up!", "Legendary", "Wait for it" (often combining the two as "legen—wait for it—dary!"), and "Daddy's home". In later seasons, he has a few serious relationships, marries, divorces, and has a child with an unnamed woman from a one-night stand.

Critics have praised the character and credit him for much of the show's success. He is considered the show's breakout character.

The show's creators envisioned Barney as what Bays later described as a "large, John Belushi-type character"; nonetheless, Megan Branman, the casting director for How I Met Your Mother, invited Harris to audition. He assumed that he was invited solely because the two were friends and did not believe he had a chance of winning the role. Harris later said: "Since I [considered] myself the long shot, I didn't care that much, and I think that allowed a freedom." His audition centered on a scene playing laser tag, and Harris attempted a dive roll, accidentally knocking over a chair and slamming into a wall in the process. CBS executives enjoyed his playing and soon offered Harris the part. The character is named for a heroin dealer in the James Ellroy novel L.A. Confidential.

Barnabas "Barney" Stinson is one of five main characters on How I Met Your Mother. He is a manipulative, oversexed businessman in his thirties who always wears a suit, likes women with "daddy issues" and is frequently willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion. Throughout the earlier seasons, Barney is a huge womanizer, and has been described as a "high-functioning sociopath" by his best friend, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). Barney has a plethora of strategies and rules designed to meet women, sleep with them, and discard them. Through several seasons of the show, four of the main characters are couples, as Ted began dating Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and Ted's roommate Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) becomes engaged and later married to Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan). This leaves Barney the only single character, and, according to Harris, Barney is "resentful" that the other characters have paired up. Later on, in season 5, he dates Robin. They end up breaking up not long after, once they both realize they are making one another miserable.