JD Vance Was Born James Donald Bowman But Changed His Name 3 Times?

Claim:

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was born James Donald Bowman but has since changed his name three times.

Rating:

Mixture

About this rating

What's True

Vance was indeed given the name James Donald Bowman at birth, after his biological father …

What's False

… but, officially, he has only changed his name twice, not three times. The first name change was the result of his adoption by his stepfather. The second name change was one he requested as he was about to graduate from Yale Law School, a year before he got married.

In summer 2024, as the U.S. presidential election gathered momentum, social media users started claiming that Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance had changed his name three times since being born James Donald Bowman (archived).

One post — which had amassed more than 51,000 views and 1,700 likes as of this writing and included an image showing two photos of Vance, one young, the other as an adult — read:

WHO ARE YOU?

Definitely not a "hillbilly"... that's literary fiction.

• Born as James Donald Bowman
• Grew up in the suburbs of Middleton [sic], Ohio
• Not poor at all, went to Yale
• Changed middle name to David
• Changed name again to Jimmy Hamel
• Changed name to JD Vance 10 years ago when he married his wife.

Several Snopes readers inquired about the meme and others that closely resembled it, including the following:

The claim contained true and false elements, therefore we rated it "Mixture."

Vance was indeed born James Donald Bowman, after his biological father Donald Ray Bowman. However, his parents separated when he was young. Later, his mother Beverly Carol (née Vance) remarried. Her new husband, Robert Hamel adopted him and, in the adoption papers, his name became James David Hamel — representing his first official name change. 

"When Bob became my legal father, Mom changed my name from James Donald Bowman to James David Hamel," Vance wrote in his book, "Hillbilly Elegy." Here is the audiobook version of that passage, at three minutes and 14 seconds of the fifth chapter.

(JD Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy")

Snopes can therefore confirm that his birth name was James Donald Bowman and that his mother changed his middle name to David at the same time his stepfather adopted him, giving him the name James David Hamel.

Vance then graduated Middletown High School as J.D. Hamel. This was also the name he served under in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was known as Cpl. James D. Hamel. He even blogged under that name from 2005 to 2010.

But by his last year at Yale Law School, he adopted Vance as his last name, which matched that of his beloved grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance. His mother and stepfather had divorced and Vance never saw his stepfather again. Vance chose this last name to honor his grandmother and also because he no longer felt a connection to Hamel. 

"J.D. Vance" appeared as an editor in the October 2012 issue of the Yale Law Journal, but his second name change did not become official until April 2013, his spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk told The Associated Press. By then he was about to graduate — contrary to the idea that he adopted his second new name when he married his wife, Usha (an idea he himself allowed to spread with his book, "Hillbilly Elegy").

(JD Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy")

According to this history, Vance only officially changed his name twice. There was a third modification, however, that was only aesthetic, when Vance chose to remove the periods between his initials, going from J.D. Vance to JD Vance. However, his official name remains James David Vance.

Therefore, the Republican vice presidential candidate has had three official names: James Donald Bowman, James David Hamel and James David Vance. However, he has only officially changed his name twice, but he has unofficially modified his name by switching from J.D. Vance to JD Vance.

We contacted Vance's campaign spokesman, Luke Schroeder, for confirmation of this chronology, and will update this story if we receive a response.