diff --git a/sqlite_utils/db.py b/sqlite_utils/db.py
index 039f9da..fd58c40 100644
--- a/sqlite_utils/db.py
+++ b/sqlite_utils/db.py
@@ -2571,6 +2571,8 @@ class Table(Queryable):
         all_columns = []
         first = True
         num_records_processed = 0
+        # Fix up any records with square braces in the column names
+        records = fix_square_braces(records)
         # We can only handle a max of 999 variables in a SQL insert, so
         # we need to adjust the batch_size down if we have too many cols
         records = iter(records)
@@ -2618,7 +2620,6 @@ class Table(Queryable):
                         column for column in record if column not in all_columns
                     ]
 
-            validate_column_names(all_columns)
             first = False
 
             self.insert_chunk(
@@ -2986,3 +2987,14 @@ def validate_column_names(columns):
         assert (
             "[" not in column and "]" not in column
         ), "'[' and ']' cannot be used in column names"
+
+
+def fix_square_braces(records: Iterable[Dict[str, Any]]):
+    for record in records:
+        if any("[" in key or "]" in key for key in record.keys()):
+            yield {
+                key.replace("[", "_").replace("]", "_"): value
+                for key, value in record.items()
+            }
+        else:
+            yield record
diff --git a/tests/test_create.py b/tests/test_create.py
index c9568d9..187d20a 100644
--- a/tests/test_create.py
+++ b/tests/test_create.py
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ def test_create_table_with_not_null(fresh_db):
             [{"name": "memoryview", "type": "BLOB"}],
         ),
         ({"uuid": uuid.uuid4()}, [{"name": "uuid", "type": "TEXT"}]),
+        ({"foo[bar]": 1}, [{"name": "foo_bar_", "type": "INTEGER"}]),
     ),
 )
 def test_create_table_from_example(fresh_db, example, expected_columns):
@@ -525,13 +526,6 @@ def test_insert_row_alter_table(
     ]
 
 
-def test_insert_row_alter_table_invalid_column_characters(fresh_db):
-    table = fresh_db["table"]
-    table.insert({"foo": "bar"}).last_pk
-    with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
-        table.insert({"foo": "baz", "new_col[abc]": 1.2}, alter=True)
-
-
 def test_add_missing_columns_case_insensitive(fresh_db):
     table = fresh_db["foo"]
     table.insert({"id": 1, "name": "Cleo"}, pk="id")