JD Vance has changed his name several times. Here’s why

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The name JD Vance is currently one of the most well-known names in US politics. However, the Ohio Senator has run through several iterations throughout his lifetime.

Vance was as born James Donald Bowman in in Middletown, Ohio, in 1984, having been given the name of his biological father, Donald Bowman. His mother’s maiden name was Beverly Vance.

His childhood nickname was J.D., which he explained was pronounced “like ‘jay-dot-dee’” in his best-selling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

Vance’s parents officially divorced when he was six years old, which he described as “the saddest I had ever felt,” in his book. He also described a “revolving door of father figures.”

After the divorce, Vance took the name of his mother’s third husband Bob Hamel, and his middle name was changed to David – that of one of his uncles – preserving his childhood nickname JD.

However, Vance did not buy his mother’s story that he was named for his uncle David. “Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald,” he wrote.

Nonetheless, “jay-dot-dee” was now short for James David.

When his mother erased Donald Bowman from his and her lives, the adoption process also erased the name James Donald Bowman from the public record. The only birth certificate for Vance on file at Ohio’s vital statistics office reads James David Hamel, according to information provided by the state, cited by the Associated Press.

He would spend more than two decades as James David “J.D.” Hamel, and served in Iraq as a US Marine – Corporal James D Hamel. But the situation gnawed at him, particularly after his mother and adoptive father divorced.

“I shared a name with no one I really cared about (which bothered me already), and with Bob gone, explaining why my name was J.D. Hamel would require a few additional awkward moments,” he wrote in Hillbilly Elegy.

“Yeah, my legal father’s last name is Hamel. You haven’t met him because I don’t see him. No, I don’t know why I don’t see him. Of all the things that I hated about my childhood, nothing compared to the revolving door of father figures.”

He decided to change his name again, to Vance — the last name of his beloved “Mamaw.” Vance’s mother suffered with substance abuse and addiction, and was allegedly abusive to her children, leading to him being taken in and brought up by James and Bonnie Vance.

Vance paid tribute to his grandmother, a union Democrat, during his acceptance speech after being elected to the US Senate in 2022.

"You’re not always going to agree with every vote that I take, and you’re not going to agree with every single amendment that I offer in the United States Senate, but I will never forget the woman who raised me,” he said.

The official name change reportedly didn’t happen on his wedding day in 2014, as the book implies, but in April 2013, as he was about to graduate from Yale.

Vance made the final alteration to his name after joining politics in July 2021, removing the periods from “J.D.” He’d often used this shorthand, JD, over his lifetime.

When asked by The Associated Press at the time if this was a formal change, or merely stylistic, his campaign said it was how Vance preferred to be referred to in print.

He has maintained the usage as a US senator, referring to himself as JD Vance on his Senate website, in press releases and in certain campaign and business filings.