I really want to honour my DH's granddad by giving our son his name as a middle name but his name is....

[GoodEggy]

Donald

He's the loveliest man ever and I'd really like to honour him like this but I'm just not sure I can do that to my son!

How bad is it?

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Not awful, awful.

What's his middle name? Can you use that.

[swancourt]

I think Donald is fine as a middle name. What are your first name choices?

[sooperdooper]

I quite like it!

[MajesticSeaFlapFlap]

My oldest son's is Kenneth.
He's a teen now and now his grandad has sadly passed he's glad he has it.

[Muskateersmummy]

Use it. You'll always regret it if you don't we nearly didn't use the name we wanted (to remember someone very close to us) because we had a dd. We chose to use a female version of it because we thought we might regret it if we only had one.... We now only have one child, and whilst it's not a name I would ever have used for her, I am so glad we did use it.

It's a middle name they are rarely used in practice anyway

[MyCatIsABiggerBastardThanYours]

How about just Don (if that was what the Grandad was known as)? Maybe a bit trendier.

Having said that my DS middle name is Mervyn after my dad so it's no worse than that.

[GoodEggy]

I don't know his middle name. Wouldn't it be a bit obvious we'd avoided Donald if we went for his middle name though? I don't want it to turn into a backhanded compliment!

[ChocolateButton15]

Don or Donny if you don't love Donald?

[PotteringAlong]

As a middle name? Not a problem.

[Somerville]

Not a problem as a middle name.

Donal and Domhnall are other forms of it, if you prefer. (Those are the Irish versions - there must be Scottish ones too.)

[Notthisnotthat]

Donald isn't bad at all, maybe because I'm in Scotland though.

[blueskyinmarch]

Donald is a very fine name. If you live in Scotland no-one will bat an eye. I know many Donald’s over all age groups. I say go for it.

[EccentricPickle]

I actually like it. It's one of those names that should have been revived in the old man chic trend, along with Archie, Arthur etc but I fear that it might have been ruined by a Mr. Duck and that's why it hasn't.

It's fine as a middle name or how about Donnie instead? Still as a middle name I mean.

[Ineedmorelemonpledge]

I like it. And the sentiment really touches the family. It certainly did when we gave DS the middle name of my grandad who died the week he was born.

[Pemba]

Not wonderful, but not horrible either. I've heard far worse. I think it would be fine as a middle name.

[NataliaOsipova]

I don't mind Donald. It's not that bad - and people will just assume it's a family name, I think. It's a nice thing to do for the whole family - and middle names very rarely get "used" once a child is out of the baby stage. Not at school, not at work - just something for forms and passports!

[MewlingQuim]

Don is good. Not fond of Donald, sorry.

[GoodEggy]

This is our 2nd DS and we used the only first name we could agree on last time so we haven't decided on a first name yet but these are our contenders (according to me anyhow)

Tristan
Dexter
Milo
Lorcan

[user1466260191]

I think Donald is quite cute! But then I love all old man names! Besides most babies look like little old men anyway. I'm sitting here staring at my 8 week old Alfred and he could easily be a Donald! X

[FlowerOfTheWest]

I like Donald. But it doesn't really go with any of those first names IMO. Except perhaps Lorcan.

[blueskyinmarch]

I like Donald better than your current first name contenders

[Raines100]

It's fine as a mn. Just do it. Could be a lot worse

[almostthirty]

We used my dfs middle name for dc2 and dfil middle name (also dhs middle name ) for dc 1.
As long as your surname isn't duck I think Donald would be lovely.

[MewlingQuim]

Saying that, I gave DD her grandmother's name as a middle name and DD loves it and DMil is very happy. It's not a name I would even consider for a first name but I love the connection to a well loved family member so I used it.

Other people probably think it is horrible, but I couldn't care less

[MrsHathaway]

We used DH's grandad's name as a middle name for DS2 who was born less than a week after DGFiL died.

But the name really didn't go with our surname. So instead of replacing the middle name we'd previously chosen, we added another. The family absolutely took it as a tribute to DGFiL but it made the whole name flow better.

So if you had been thinking of James Matthew Smith, why not go for James Matthew Donald Smith?