Middle names for baby boy in honor of my grandpa?

[zeref]

Our baby boy is going to be born in September. His name will be Rowan. My grandpa juat passed away a week ago, and i really want to put his name in there as the middle name. My grandpa's name was Jose, and im not sure if im a fan of that. He did always go by "Joe", so I was trying to think of a boys name that began with Joe, that isn't Joseph. Im also conflicted on just wanting to use Jose in general.

What do you think? Rowan Jose? Is there another "Joe" name that sounds good?

Also juat for context, I live in Ontario, Canada.

Thanks

Rowan Joe is fine.
Ro-Jo may become an irritating nickname (or a cute one, if you’re so inclined)!

whereas in Scotland I think it's more of an even split., @User6761,
Historcally, yes, but a few more boys in 2024 and 2025 Babies’ First Names, 2025 - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

In 2024, 421 boys, 265 girls (First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators), @User6761 .

You don’t have to use the exact name to honour someone as long as it feels like a strong connection to you. This works differently in different cultures too. People can be named in honour by sharing initials.

In this case Joel feels like a good choice to me.

Just use Jose or Joe , using any other name isn’t honouring your grandpa as they were the names he was called . If you don’t like those names then forget it altogether , which is equally ok

@ImpunityJane , if I wanted to name DD in honour of my gran, but didn't like the name Beryl so give DD the name Pearl instead because it sounds fairly similar, how is that honouring my gran? It doesn't make sense

Interesting that it's becoming more of a male name in Scotland too. I wonder what pronunciation is usually used for the boys as every Scottish female Rowan I know - and the tree - is pronounced to rhyme with cow.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I think Jose or Joe is the way to go. As others have said those were his actual names and looking for a different Joe adjacent name isn't really honouring him in the same way. Middle names don't have to flow or sound especially pleasing to the ear. You're honouring someone who was an important figure in your life, and that's what counts.

Jose is fine. Or as others have said so are Joe, Joel and Jonah. (I love the name jonah)

josiah, joey, josef, jobe,

Can never understand wanting to use someone’s name- José, not Joe for short but a name like Joe so maybe Jovan?
you end up with a name that isn’t the original name at all so it’s pointless using it. Might aswell not bother

I don’t know what it’s like in Canada but in the UK (unless you double barrel a name) you very rarely use a middle name. Sure it’s on documents, but it never comes up in day to day. Both my kids have grandparent middle names and they’re so classic you wouldn’t typically get a child with that name anymore, but nobody would even know they have that middle name. They sign first name last name on everything. We did it to honour family members, and I don’t regret the names. So I would go with Jose.