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Very few names are unusable in my opinion and Valdemar is definitely not one of them. I quite like it but not enough to consider using it. It's the favorite name of my sister's boyfriend and I have jokingly told him that if they have a son and name him Valdemar I will call him Havsdalen (sea valley) because that's what I think of, Val de Mar.

My mind goes directly to Voldemort. I think it would be a difficult name to bear in the US. It is so unlike the softer names that are popular now that it just sounds villainous.

I like it and I my mind it's perfectly useable.
A friend of a friend of mine named her kid Valdemar about two years ago. They're in Denmark.

I wouldn't have thought of Voldemort before reading this but yeah, I absolutely can't get past it now. I do think it's too similar to Vladimir.

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I dislike it and would consider it unusable.

I'm 32 and went to high school with a Valdemar, he went by Vlad. It's usable.

I tend to agree. I suppose if you're not in the US, then it probably wouldn't matter.

I like the sound of it, but I like Aldemar and Adalmar better.

Vladimir was my first thought too. I don't really like it.

I'm from Sweden and Valdemar is a perfectly normal and somewhat common name here. So no, nut unusable.
I don't think it's unusable in the US either.

I love V boys names, particularly Valdemar, Vespasian and Vercingetorix. I think it's totally usable.

I can only speak of what it might be like where I live (US). It would be less than totally usable for someone in my demographic IMO, because it sounds like Voldemort and because it just seems to have sort of a severe old fashioned style. (I personally don't think it sounds like Vladimir, nor do I think the association with Putin would ruin Vladimir esp. considering it's such a frequent Russian name) But I think if someone from another country or culture bore it here - it was actually the name of a person, and not just a name to give opinions on - nobody where I live would react. Americans might not particularly like it, for reasons such as mine or your friend's. For whatever it's worth, there's a Vladimir (or maybe two?) at my kids' school and of course they are Russian and it's no problem. A Valdemar whose parents weren't American would also have no problem. I don't feel like I myself could use Vladimir, nor Valdemar, without getting negative inital reactions. But even so, people would get used to it. It's not bad, and anyway he could be called Val which seems kind of cool.