Ohio Senator J.D. Vance Has Changed His Name Multiple Times Over the Years

Just two days after surviving an assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump chose Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential race. He received his official nomination at the Republican National Convention on July 15.

Despite his prominent role in the "Never Trump" movement during the 2016 election, J.D. Vance secured Trump's endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Republican Senate primary, where Trump famously referred to him as "J.D. Mandel."

To be fair, J.D. Vance has undergone several name changes over his lifetime. Curious about why? Keep reading to discover the reasons behind his name changes.

J.D. Vance was originally named James Donald Bowman, taking after his father, Donald Bowman. Donald was J.D.'s mother, Beverly Carol, second husband, but they divorced when he was a toddler. Shortly thereafter, J.D. was adopted by Beverly's third husband, Bob Hamel.

Later on, he adopted the name James David Hamel, replacing his biological father's first name with "David," which was his maternal uncle's name, in order to maintain the "J.D." nickname that had become familiar to him.

A few years after that, J.D.'s mother and Bob went their separate ways. In his bestselling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. reflected on this separation.

"One of the worst parts, honestly, was that Bob's departure would further complicate the tangled web of last names in our family," he wrote, noting that his mother consistently took on the last name of "whatever husband she was married to."

Upon entering Yale Law School, J.D. started sharing his childhood experiences and identity with his friends. He acknowledged that his legal father, whose name was on his birth certificate, felt like a complete stranger to him.

After graduating, J.D. married a former classmate named Usha Chilukuri, and they decided to change their last name to Vance. This decision, as J.D. put it, finally gave him "the same name as the family to which I belonged."

As mentioned earlier, J.D. Vance was born as James Donald, but now the "J.D." stands for James David, after his mother's uncle.