This election year, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance‘s name has become better known across the country, but it’s not the only one he’s ever gone by.
Vance first received national attention as the author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, which propelled his political career in Ohio, leading 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 differently.
Here is what you need to know about Vance’s name and why changes were made.
What was Vance’s original name?
Vance was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio, in 1984, with his biological father’s name, Donald Bowman.
Vance’s middle name was changed to David after his parents divorced. He eventually took up the last name of his stepfather, Robert Hamel, and was named James David Hamel. From high school through his time serving as a U.S. Marine, Vance started using his first and middle initials and went by “J.D.”
In 2013, James David Hamel legally changed his surname to honor his maternal grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, often called “Mamaw.” And in 2021, upon entering politics, he removed the periods from his initials, a detail noted in his official U.S. Senate biography, which lists his first name as JD.
Victor Hagan contributed to the reporting of this story.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JD Vance has changed his name several times. A look at the changes.