A transgender YouTuber called Milo said he changed his name because the association with Milo Yiannopoulos was too much to bear.
Milo Stewart, an 18-year-old video star, announced in a video that he had ditched his former name, and will now be known as Quinby.
He said he felt forced into the change for “the sake of my mental health” after comments under his videos made repeated reference to “the other Milo”.
Stewart said he tried to keep the name “as an act of defiance”.
But the burgeoning infamy of Yiannopoulos – whom Stewart refers to as Milo Minneapolis – made this unsustainable:
The obvious comparison a lot of people like to make online between me and anther person called Milo – Milo Minneapolis…
For a while I clung on to the name Milo as an act of defiance, thinking I couldn’t let the trolls win, I would cling to my name and love it.
And I do love the name Milo but I don’t think that it is losing in any way to let go of the name for the sake of my mental health.
Stewart explained that Milo was never his legal name, and that he adopted it after seeing it on a list of hipster baby names – so it was an easy process to re-identify as Quinby. He said acceptable nicknames are Qubie and Qube.
