AJ McLean admits he was “a little surprised” 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 interview with the “Today” show that his initial reaction to his child’s choice to use Elliott instead of her birth name, Ava, was, “Well, this is new.”
He continued: “But I support my children in everything they want to do. So now Elliott is Elliott.”
McClean, 44, noted that he and his wife, Rochelle McLean, have not yet legally changed their oldest child’s name.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” he said, pointing out that the choice “had nothing to do with pronouns” or gender identity.
“Maybe she’ll wake up tomorrow and say, ‘I’m Ava again.'”
The singer and hairdresser, 40, are also the parents of daughter Lyric, who hilariously wanted to join the name change game after seeing her sister change things.
“[Elliott] almost started 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 going to do this.’”
Rochelle told her Instagram followers about Elliott’s new name in an August post to celebrate her kids’ first day of school.
“Last year she asked us to start naming her Elliott and it stuck. She wanted something unique that no one else had. (There are so many Avas),” she explained, pointing out that she saw no “harm” in “respecting” her child’s choice.
AJ echoed his wife’s sentiment in this week’s interview, saying that “there are some girls named Ava” at Elliott’s school, and she wanted to be different.
However, the Grammy nominee added, “She will always be Ava to me.”