Q: Hi Dave, Do you have any information about the inspiration for the name Donald Duck please? We have a famous cricket player in Australia (the most famous player to ever play the game) called Donald Bradman and there is some suggestion that Donald Duck was named after our great batsman. The rationale is that Bradman toured the US in 1932 and made a duck (got out without scoring) on 16th July 1932 when he played in NYC. This caused a great amount of commentary at the time, as Bradman's average score was 100 and he the most difficult person to get out in the history of the game. It is said that Walt may have seen him play in LA and Donald Duck was seen for the first time in 1934 I think! Cheers, James
James Merchant, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
A: When Walt Disney came up with a duck character, he wanted to use alliteration, such as he did with Mickey Mouse. Donald was a popular name in the 1930s, so naming the character Donald was an obvious choice. It is a stretch to think that he might have been named for an Australian cricket player, even though that has been speculated on Wikipedia.