A couple decided to change their daughter’s name after two months because they found it was “hard” to say their initial choice. Ava Kennedy, 24, and her husband, John Kennedy, 25, named their daughter Lila Charm after struggling to make a decision throughout the pregnancy.
However, they started to find it “hard” to call her Lila as they felt it didn’t suit her but were “nervous” to admit it to each other. After two months, Ava finally admitted that she wasn’t sure about the name and felt they should change it to Marigold – the other name the couple had picked out.
John, a designer, immediately agreed and the pair went to change her name the very next day. They feel Marigold Lila Kennedy suits their daughter, now four months old, because she is “smiley” and a “ray of light”.
Ava, a stay-at-home-mum from Salt Lake City, Utah, US, said: “Lila is a beautiful name. There is nothing wrong with it. But Marigold – she’s so smiley and happy. She had this ray of light around her. Calling her Goldie feels so much like her.”
Ava and John hadn’t struggled to settle on a name for their first daughter Coco Love Kennedy – now three. She said: “We loved the name Coco. She came out and she was a Coco. It was really easy. It felt old but new. It was so special and unique. It felt her before even meeting her.”
But when they found out they were expecting their second daughter in September 2023, they didn’t have a name they were set on.
Ava commented, “There was pressure on the second one. We had a tonne of girls names – it was a toss up.”
The couple even used AI in their search, with Ava revealing, “We came up with Lila Charm with AI.”
Despite liking ‘Marigold’ as well, she admitted, “We liked Marigold too but we forgot about it. We were undecided.”
They had not settled on a name when they welcomed their daughter in May 2024, leading them to seek help from Ava’s sister Audrey Love Evans, aged 19. Ava recounted, “My sister had to decide for us. She said ‘OK it’s Lila’.”
Join the Daily Record’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
However, calling their child Lila didn’t feel right; Ava disclosed, “But having her around it was hard to call her Lila. Both my husband and I had Marigold in the back of our heads. We were nervous to tell each other. It took us a while to admit it. It makes me feel like I made a mistake.”
Ava eventually confided in John that she preferred Marigold in August 2024.
She stated, “I was looking at her thinking she’s a Marigold. I want to call her that now. I didn’t want to feel I regretted something. I blurted out ‘I think her name is Marigold’. He agreed and said ‘lets change it’. We thought people are going to think we’re crazy. Lets just let go of the idea that we might get judged for it.”
The next day, they re-registered their daughter’s name to Marigold Lila Kennedy. Ava said it was a relief: “It felt like a weight was lifted off our shoulders.”
There was an adjustment period for friends and family who continued calling her Lila, but they have since embraced Marigold’s new moniker.
Ava appreciated their kindness, saying, “They were so kind about it.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.