Hate DD’s planned baby name. Is it ever ok to say that?

[Giggsie]

I expect the answer is to keep quiet but I fear by future grandchild will be teased mercilessly.

OP it sounds like this isn’t a name your DD has chosen on a whim but one she’s put thought in to and really likes, in which case I’d say nothing.

I am married to an Irish man and now live there and our children have very traditional Irish names; my mum hates one of them and has never made any secret of it. I can’t forgive her for how rude she is about it. She mispronounces it on purpose (he’s 7, she’s had long enough to get used to it!) and I hear her joking about it to her friends. I am not suggesting you’ll do this but decide whether your relationship with your DD and future grandchildren is more important than your thoughts on a name, as my relationship with my mother is permanently damaged.

I know one or two around here albeit living in a geeky area. It’s also the name of one of Jupiter’s moons. It’s trending.

I O I O it's off to work I go
With a shovel and a pick
And a tickling stick
I O I O I O I O
Keep singing it, @Giggsie .

The name I wanted to call my daughter was laughed at by my in laws- Saskia. I was told it was ridiculous. I did change it (as they said they would shorten it to sassy or sarky) but 27 years later, I’m still annoyed at myself!

I really like it. I dont think teasing over names will.be a big deal soon. Nowadays a much wider range of names are used so to the younger generation this is just normal.

I LOVE mythology and classical civilisations but this name is truly awful.

yanbu but there's likely nothing you can do

You could try power in numbers...

Our friends wanted to give their son an AWFUL name and both sets of parents and some siblings sat them down and were like "think about it... fo you REALLY want that for your child?" And they picked a much nicer name

This might be just the thing to put her off.

Invent one or two babies who’ve recently been named io and intimate it’s become the new ava or similar

Is that Adrian Mole? 🤣

I think it’s a nice name! If we ruled out names of characters raped by Zeus we’d rule out a few and luckily most people won’t ever associate it with that because it’s quite an obscure reference these days. It’s cute and cool. I think you’re overreacting.

Oh no, that's a genuinely terrible name. Horrible to look at, horrible sound, horrible meaning and associations.

You can't say anything of course but I hear you. Not even anything you can shorten it to. I suggest you find a nickname quickly for the baby and just call her that.

I've just read its Io as in eye oh & not actually Lo. It opens itself up to all sorts of nicknames as you mentioned OP, such as 10 or Lo (resulting in HI) Some people try so hard to be different when picking names they end up condemning their chid to lifelong teasing. Again,I would have no hesitation in diplomatically & sensitively suggesting my concerns.

We had Io on our name list for DD. It's a beautiful name, and people will get it wrong once and then remember it.
I don't know why we get so hung up on unusual names that people might misread, it happens all the time with surnames but we get on fine don't we? I have an unusual surname and people never get it right first time, but I've never been bothered by it (in fact have kept my name rather than taking dh's very common one).

Io is not hard to pronounce so that won't be an issue. And there's absolutely no reason to think a child would be bullied for being called Io. Children are bullied for all sorts of reasons but their names aren't usually a reason. Ti mm es have changed from the John, James, and Henry days and there are lots of individual and unusual names in every class.

But that would be constant, and inherent to the name?

That's an excellent way to have grandma kept at arm's length and told less, involved less, visited less, and generally being slightly less part of her daughter's and granddaughter's lives than she might be otherwise. In some families the mother's parents feel like the "primary" grandparents, but where they act like this the father's parents will probably fall into that role!

Have you asked them why they chose that name?

Same here, I have never seen my name on anything and even in my old age I still look for it! I do like my name though, it is unusal without being "whatever were your parents thinking" and have only ever met one other person with it.

Really, almost all female names from myths have negative associations - women haven’t had a great time through history! Most Ancient Greek names have some kind of rape connection - as a pp said, Persephone is romanticised but realistically she was kidnapped by Hades.

And Ophelia is one of the top names right now and she’s a tragic suicide victim! Not great either but no one cares because they think it’s pretty.

Cecily is so often suggested on MN threads but it means blind.

Io just isn’t as bad as you think tbh. And I like the sound of it.

Love it. It's their time to name their baby. Let them crack on.

I like it. And yes, I know the myth.

My DD1 was at nursery with an Io, don't think it was that far out. I've also known quite a few Nigerians who go by Ayo which is pronounced pretty much the same, so as a name it clearly sounds fine, is it the spelling you dislike?

They can pick what they want, and you can hate it .

My brother picked a name for his daughter that can be turned in to a personal
body part. But I shit my mouth not my business

This must be a wind-up 😂

That's quite the reaction @2021x! 😅

Yep!

I agree !

Where I live a child called James probably would get bullied (it's used in jokes as an old fashioned English butler/ servant or chauffeur's name and featured in a cheesy television programme known to everyone). Actually the only child I know personally who was bullied specifically for his name is called Benjamin - it's the name of a young children's cartoon character locally, but also a perfectly normal name, if slightly veering towards being a "dad name" in the local area.

The OP's grandchild is not going to be growing up in the UK, not that most UK kids would think anything of it as it's almost more usual to have an "out there" name than one a grandmother might pick as being "normal" (my mother hates one of my children's names and suggested John instead! That would not have been an inconspicuous name for a now teenager!).

Brilliant. I'll call my DC Crapper because surnames as first names are trendy..