AJ McLean admits he was “a little taken aback” by his daughter’s decision to change her name, but he still gave the 9-year-old his full support.
The Backstreet Boys member said in a recent “Today” show interview that his initial reaction to his child’s choice to go by Elliott instead of her birth name, Ava, was, “Well, this is new.”
He continued, “But I support my kids in whatever they want to do. So now Elliott is Elliott.”
McClean, 44, noted that he and his wife, Rochelle McLean, have yet to legally change their eldest child’s moniker.
“I don’t know if that is going to happen,” he said, noting that the choice had “nothing to do with pronouns” or gender identity.
“She may wake up tomorrow and say, ‘I’m Ava again.’”
The singer and the hairdresser, 40, are also the parents of daughter Lyric, who hilariously wanted to get in on the name-changing game after seeing her sister switch things up.
“[Elliott] did almost start this domino effect because then Lyric wanted to change her name to Ava,” AJ recalled of the 5-year-old. “And I was like, ‘No. No. No. We’re not gonna do this.’”
Rochelle told her Instagram followers about Elliott’s new name in an August post celebrating her kids’ first day of school.
“Last year she asked us to start calling her Elliott and it stuck. She wanted something unique that no one else had. (There are so many Ava’s),” she explained, noting that she did not see any “harm” in “respecting” her child’s choice.
AJ echoed his wife’s sentiment in this week’s interview, saying that “there are a few girls named Ava” at Elliott’s school, and she wanted to be different.
However, the Grammy nominee added, “She’ll always be Ava to me.”