Oh great, we have degenerative ignorance now. The GOP acronym is all the prevents the confusion of the modern day GOP with Jefferon's "Republicans". Since academia has abandoned use of the term "Democratic-Republican" for the more histortically accurate designation of "Republican", this couldn't be worse for ensuring accurate knowledge of US political history. 
Accurate knowledge of political history? Maybe but personally I find it inaccurate that we call these Republicans the Grand Old Party, instead of the grander and older Jeffersonians.
The name is allusion to the Grand Army of the Republic, the major veteran's organization of the Union Army of the Civil War. That allusion is not something that is particularly relevant to today's politics and certainly not appropriate for Southern Republicans.
