What does ‘JD’ stand for in JD Vance? A brief history of the VP candidate name changes.

This election year, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s name has become more familiar across the country, but it’s not the only one he’s ever encountered.

Vance first came to national attention as the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, which boosted his political career in Ohio and led to his election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.

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

Here’s 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, taking his biological father’s name, Donald Bowman.

Vance’s middle name was changed to David after his parents divorced. He eventually adopted 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 went by “JD.”

In 2013, James David Hamel legally changed his last name to honor his maternal grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, also known as “Mamaw.” And in 2021, when he entered 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.