For years I've been claiming on this site that
Milo wouldn't work as a name in South
Africa because of a malted chocolate drink, popular with children: you mix a spoonful into a glass of hot or cold milk, give it a stir, and there's your association with the name. But now I know a six-year-old
Milo who is beautiful, cheerful, highly intelligent and displays great empathy for someone his age. I still associate it with the drink, though. And it was a delivery-room inspiration: the parents, grandparents, whoever had all been dicussing names and narrowing them down to
Jesse and, I forget the other one, also a J name:
Jared maybe? And the mother, from her hospital bed, said "
Milo!".
Here, it's pronounced MY-low. Sort of close to
Miles, which I prefer but not enough to use.