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This election year, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance's name has become more familiar across the country, but it's not the only one he's ever mentioned.

Vance first gained national attention as the author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, which advanced his political career in Ohio and led to his election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Over the past 40 years, the author-turned-politician has had three different last names: Bowman, Hamel and Vance, and his first name has been abbreviated variously.

Here's what you need to know about Vance's name and why the changes were made.

What was Vance's original name?

Vance was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio in 1984, taking the name of his biological father Donald Bowman.

Vance's middle name was changed to David after his parents' divorce. He eventually took his stepfather's surname Robert Hamel and was called James David Hamel. From high school through his time as a U.S. Marine, Vance began using his first and middle initials and called himself “JD.”

In 2013, James David Hamel officially changed his last name to honor his maternal grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, often called “Mamaw.” And in 2021, when he entered politics, he removed the dots from his initials, a detail noted in his official U.S. Senate biography, which lists his first name, JD.

Victor Hagan contributed to the reporting of this story.

On By John Fenwick

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