JD Vance has become one of the most famous men in the world as Vice President of the United States. The “JD” sure makes it easier to remember his name; however, he has not always been called that. The vice president has, in fact, changed his name no more than four(!) times. Why? Here’s the real reason.
JD Vance’s journey to the White House began in his childhood in Middletown, Ohio. Born James Donald Bow, Vance grew up in a challenging environment where his mother struggled with drug addiction.
After his parents divorced, his mother’s behavior became increasingly volatile as he grew older. When Vance was six years old, his mother, Beverly, remarried Robert Hamel. At that time, his stepfather adopted him, and his name was legally changed from James Donald Bow to James David Hamel. This marked Vance’s first name change.
These events marked only the beginning of many tragic days Vance would face as a child. In an interview with NPR, he discussed incidents he also wrote about in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. This memoir was later adapted into a film by Ron Howard named Hillbilly Elegy, starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
In an NPR interview, Vance recalled the terrifying moment his mother threatened to crash their car, killing both her son and daughter.
“[I] hopped in the back seat to hide from her. And this got her really angry. And she stopped the car and pulled over and, I think, was going to start hitting me. And so I ran,” Vance said.
JD Vance has changed his name four times
He was adopted by his grandparents, and JD Vance had taken his name change very seriously. The now Vice President explained in his memoir that, while his initials remained the same, the “D” no longer stood for Donald.
In his memoir, Vance rejected his mother’s idea that he had been named after an uncle named David.
“Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald,” Vance wrote.
Throughout his high school years at Middletown High School and during his service as a U.S. Marine in Iraq, he used the name James David Hamel. His degree from The Ohio State University was also under this name.
As a 26-year-old student at Yale Law School, he continued to use the name James David Hamel, including for a personal blog. However, another name change occurred following later family developments.
After his mother and adoptive father, Robert Hamel, divorced, Vance felt unsettled about his name situation.
“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,” Vance 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.”
Why he chose JD Vance
Years later, J.D, or “like jay-dot-dee-dot,” as he described in his memoir, being short for James David, felt he wanted to honor his grandmother, named Bonnie Blanton Vance. He credited her for raising him after his tragic childhood, and therefore took the name Vance.
Per Fortune, his campaign spokesperson aylor Van Kirk, previously said, “Throughout his tumultuous childhood, Mamaw, or Bonnie Blanton Vance, raised JD and was always his north star. It only felt right to him to take Vance as his last name.”
When he began his political career in 2021, however, Vance decided to drop the “dot.” He publicly rebranded himself as JD Vance, and his campaign confirmed at the time that that was how he wanted his name written.
So what is the vice president’s legal name today? James David Vance
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