Modern Family's Lily Explains Professional Name Change

Modern Family child star Frances Anderson is detailing her decision to go by a different name professionally.

“Frances is actually part of my legal name. It’s my middle name, and it’s after my mom’s old family friend,” Anderson, 18, told E! News in an interview published on Friday, August 8. “I thought, one, it was a bit shorter than ‘Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.’ I do have a long, hyphenated last name.”

Anderson was previously credited as Aubrey Anderson-Emmons when she played Lily, the daughter of Cam and Mitchell, on all 11 seasons of Modern Family.

“I [also] wanted to switch it up and I wanted people to see a new side of me,” she told the outlet. “I wanted to create a space specifically just for music. I’m so excited for everybody to hear the songs on the EP, and I’m so grateful.”

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Anderson released her debut EP, Drown, on Friday about her experiences as a child star and beyond.

“A lot of my music is inspired from stuff when I was younger, when I was a kid,” Anderson said. “A lot about what my experiences were like in high school, and I hope that people find it relatable. I am a teenager, I guess, I just turned 18. I feel like that’s peak edginess.”

Frances Anderson with Ariel Winter and Sarah Hyland in ‘Modern Family.’ ABC/Matt Klitscher/ Everett Collection

Anderson took a step back from acting after Modern Family wrapped in 2020, instead focusing on music. (Anderson was 12 years old when the sitcom ended.)

“I learned how to play guitar during COVID, and I learned to really write during my high school music class, and before then, I’ve always been a singer,” she told E! News. “One of my big dreams in life was to be on Broadway. I’m still hoping to do that one day—fingers crossed.”

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Anderson is also open to the possibility of getting back into acting, especially if a Modern Family spinoff is on the table.

“They really haven’t said much about anything. But my mom asked me, ‘Would you want to do that?’ and I thought about it and I don’t know,” Anderson told the Daily Mail in February 2024. “I think maybe if it happened — and probably if it did happen — I would be out of high school. So honestly, that would be fine with me, but I want to stay in high school because I only have less than a year and a half left.”

Anderson, who graduated earlier this year, did note that she would “definitely be interested” based on the script — and if her TV dads (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) were also on board.

”I feel like the finale left possibilities,” she added at the time. “I think that’s why people are always talking about a spinoff of the Tucker-Pritchard family.”

Anderson has remained in touch with many of her former costars, including Ferguson, 49.

“I just called her the other day, and it went straight to voicemail,” Ferguson exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2024. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, she sent me to voicemail!’ I’m calling her, and she’s sending me to voicemail. She’s like, ‘Oh God, my TV dad’s calling me.’ But, you know, she’s a different human being now.”