Vice President JD Vance says he and his wife, Usha, are heading into the birth of their fourth child without a name picked out, and if their track record is any guide, they may not settle on one until they're in the delivery room.

The baby boy is due in July. That will make him the first child born to a sitting vice president in modern American history. And yet, as of mid-June, the most powerful second family in the country is still debating what to call him.

Vance, 41, told USA TODAY in a telephone interview tied to the release of his new memoir that the couple's naming process has always been a last-minute affair. Two of their three existing children, Ewan, 9; Vivek, 6; and Mirabel, 4, didn't get their names until after they were born.

"Usha and I have very different perspectives on what to name kids, and so we're always kind of debating names as we go into the delivery room and then once we see the baby, that's usually when we decide."

He added: "So no baby name yet. We know it's a boy, that's all we know, and I'm sure we'll name the child by the time we have to put a name on a birth certificate, just like we always do."

A historic arrival at the Naval Observatory

The Vances announced the pregnancy in January. As Newsmax reported, Usha Vance is the first wife of a sitting vice president to be pregnant while her husband holds the office. The couple said at the time that both mother and baby were doing well and that they expected the boy in late July.

Their joint statement, shared on social media, reflected the family's characteristic directness. "We're very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy," they wrote, as Fox News reported. "Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July."

The Vances also thanked the military doctors caring for the family and the staff members who help them balance public service with raising young children.

Fatherhood, loss, and a change of heart

The pregnancy carries a deeper personal story, one Vance lays out in his forthcoming memoir, "Communion," set for release on June 16. An excerpt published by the Wall Street Journal reveals that Vance had asked Usha for years to have another baby, and for years she had told him she was done, especially after the demands of public life put the family in the national spotlight.

Then came the death of Charlie Kirk last September. Kirk, the young conservative activist, was a close friend of the Vances. Vance wrote that "something changed for Usha" after they buried Kirk, and that she became pregnant not long after.

It is a striking detail, a family's private grief giving way to new life. Vance does not elaborate further in the published excerpt, and Usha Vance has not spoken publicly about the connection. But the timeline speaks for itself.

Usha, 40, had hinted at the possibility during an interview last summer with conservative podcast host Meghan McCain. Asked whether she wanted more children, she said she did not, but added two words that, in hindsight, left the door wide open: "Never say never."

The willingness to remain open to new life, even under the pressures of a high-profile role, is a theme that other public figures have spoken about in deeply personal terms.

Kids in the West Wing

Vance told NBC News that once the baby arrives, Usha plans to step out of the public eye for a time to bond with their newborn. That means the vice president will be bringing his three older children to work with him at the White House over the summer.

He seemed to relish the idea. Vance said his kids enjoy coming to the office, mostly because they get to eat junk food and watch television. A few weeks ago, when Usha wasn't feeling well, he brought one of the children along for the day.

Has anyone in the Cabinet offered to help babysit?

"Nobody's offered to babysit, but it's funny, nobody minds when the kids are around, either. Everybody's very welcoming."

Then came the line that drew a laugh: "Obviously when you're the vice president, the only person who can really get mad at you is the president," Vance said, "and so we'll definitely use that privilege quite a bit over the summer, when we can bring the kids into the White House with me."

Walking the talk on family

The baby's arrival will land in the middle of a political environment where family size, fertility rates, and pro-natal policy have become live debates. Vance has been one of the most vocal figures in Washington on the subject. At the 2025 March for Life, he declared, "I want more babies in the United States of America," as AP News reported.

Critics have tried to paint that stance as intrusive or out of touch. But for the Vances, the argument is personal before it is political. A vice president welcoming a child while in office is historically rare. The Washington Examiner noted that while presidential families have had children during White House tenures, this appears to be the first known time a sitting second lady will give birth while her husband serves as vice president.

That fact alone makes the Vance family a living counterargument to the cultural assumption that ambition and large families are incompatible. JD Vance holds the second-highest office in the land. Usha Vance is a Yale Law graduate who clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States. They have three children under ten and a fourth on the way. They are not slowing down.

Breitbart confirmed the couple's Instagram announcement in January, noting the ages of their existing children, Ewan, then 8; Vivek, 5; and Mirabel, 4, and the rarity of the occasion.

The name can wait

For now, the biggest unresolved question in the vice president's household has nothing to do with policy, legislation, or diplomacy. It's what to put on the birth certificate.

The couple's existing children carry names that reflect both Vance's Appalachian roots and Usha's Indian heritage, Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. Whatever they choose for child number four, it will arrive the way it always does in the Vance family: after some debate, after some waiting, and after they see the baby's face.

In a Washington that can't agree on much of anything, there's something refreshing about a couple who treats a baby name the old-fashioned way, as a decision that belongs to the parents, made in their own time, on their own terms.