the robinson children are the twins, peregrine and antoniette, who have abbreviated their names to perry and ant, their brother sundance, and their sister beany. sundance got his nickname because perry and ant used to play butch cassidy, and sundance was always the sundance kid. beany, whose real name is elizabeth, got her name because she declared, at a young age, that she wanted to be a bean when she grew up. she actually wanted to be a doctor in south africa and didn't know how to tell her parents.