Avril Ramona Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario. Her father, Jean-Claude Joseph Lavigne,[13] named her "Avril" after the French word for the month of April. At the age of two, she began singing church songs with her mother,[14] Judith-Rosanne "Judy" (née Loshaw). Judy recognized her two-year-old daughter's talents after hearing her sing "Jesus Loves Me" in church.[15] Lavigne has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle,[16] both of whom teased her when she sang. "My brother used to knock on the wall because I used to sing myself to sleep and he thought it was really annoying."[15] Her father is of French descent and her mother has English, Scottish, and German ancestry.[17