i-dle’s Soyeon Addresses Speculation That The Name Change Involves Former Member Soojin

The group’s “new era” has been met with mixed reactions.

Earlier this year, (G)I-DLE announced their name would change to i-dle, along with plans for their recent comeback.

The group’s comeback included re-recording their previous releases as a five-member group and making what many believed to be references to their former member, Soojin.

Soojin exited the group following bullying accusations and has often been brought up in relation to the group.

I-dle’s Special Album Release Triggers Heavily Divided Reactions Because Of Former Member Soojin

Recently, Soyeon addressed part of the speculation about the changes being caused by Soojin, specifically the change in name.

On May 23, i-dle’s episode of The Seasons aired, where they were interviewed by actor Park Bo Gum.

During the program, Park Bo Gum asked about the name change, with Soyeon responding that when the group first debuted, they believed their name was i-dle.

When we were originally preparing to debut, we thought our name was just ‘i-dle.’ But when we debuted, the articles suddenly said ‘(G)I-DLE.’

— Soyeon

She continued saying that they had always considered themselves as “i-dle” but the difficulty in changing the name across everything resulted in a delay.

We’ve always been ‘i-dle.’ So we used to say, ‘Let’s change it to just ‘i-dle’ once more people recognize us as that.’ But we had to change all the official sites too, and it wasn’t an easy process. We weren’t able to change it for seven years, but now we’ve finally made it official.

— Soyeon

It seems the name i-dle has existed since before the group debuted!