'Harris' or 'Kamala'? Inside the debate over calling women by their first or last name
What’s in a presidential candidate’s name? That’s the question TikTokers have sought to answer ever since President Biden announced Sunday that he would exit the 2024 campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
While there’s no question as to how to pronounce Harris’s name — that was clarified in a 2016 video posted to her official X account — many are wondering how to respectfully address the presumptive presidential nominee.
Some argue that referring to her as “Kamala” is too familiar and, thus, demeaning, as most male politicians go by their last names. Others feel that calling her “Harris” is not honoring her wishes, since she’s quoted as once saying, “Just call me Kamala.”
Now, the debate has taken wing on social media, prompting people to analyze her campaign and sleuth out which moniker is most appropriate and respectful — a conversation a linguistic expert says is an important one to have.
What people are saying online
On July 22, TikToker Brandon Lowe took to the app to apologize to viewers after receiving a comment correcting him on his use of Kamala in a previous video.
“I had no idea that I had this little piece of misogyny inside of me,” he stated in the video. “Calling men in power by their last name and women in power by their first name is just natural to me, and I don’t know why, but it changes today.”
A day later, Lowe changed course again. “A lot of people tagged me in videos of Kamala saying, ‘Just call me Kamala.’ It does appear she would like to be called Kamala, and that is exactly what I will do. … I appreciate everyone educating me.”
Mira Lindner, Professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, uploaded a TikTok on July 22 that cited a 2018 PNAS study on how gender determines the way we speak about professionals to make her point that it is important to refer to the vice president as “Harris.”
The next day, she walked back the assertion, saying her statement lacked nuance on intersectionality. “There are certain things I shouldn’t be speaking on,” she stated in the video. “My goal was not to tell the vice president how to run her campaign. … My goal as a psychologist is to understand human behavior.”
Some TikTokers knew where they stood on the debate from the start.
On TikTok, attorney Isvari Maranwe posted a video answering the question, “Is ‘Kamala’ just misogyny?”
“No. You do not need to start referring to Kamala Harris as ‘Harris,’” she answered. “She has very intentionally branded herself as ‘Kamala,’ just as Bernie Sanders is branded as ‘Bernie,’ Beyonce [Knowles-Carter] as ‘Beyonce.’”
Erika Harrison, an attorney and content creator, asserted that Harris’s name and how we refer to her goes deeper than just a campaign strategy. Given her multiracial heritage, Harrison said, the name she uses to represent herself might have important personal meaning.
How Kamala Harris refers to herself
Recently, Harris’s X account has embraced her first name (and the “Brat summer” theme), changing its title and banner image to Kamala HQ.
We also see the name “Kamala” on her backdrop at speaking events.
However, at those same events, we also see “Harris for President” signs.
We see the same “Harris for President” slogan on her official campaign merchandise.
Many feel the definitive answer on how to shorthand her name lies in two videos uploaded to Harris’s YouTube channel in 2019, a time when she was running for president in the 2020 election.
The first video, which took viewers along on her Iowa bus tour, revealed Harris’s campaign bus, the name “Kamala” emblazoned on its side.
The second video, a cooking segment with Mindy Kaling, is what many are citing as the clear-cut answer to the debate. In it, Kaling asks if it’s disrespectful to refer to her as Kamala, and if she should instead call her Sen. Harris.
“No … That’s not on my birth certificate,” Harris answers. “[Call me] Kamala, please.”
What an expert says
According to Melissa Baese-Berk, professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago, the debate around Harris’s name is an important one — and one that is also subjective. Context, relationship and intent all matter when referring to someone by their first name, Baese-Berk told Yahoo News.
“There’s a lot of debate, in part, because there’s no ‘right’ answer about this. Lots of people feel that first names are used in disrespectful ways, or are used disproportionately for individuals from marginalized communities,” said Baese-Berk.
Someone may call the vice president “Kamala” because they feel she is relatable. On the flip side, someone could use just her first name as a way of being condescending, she added.
“But calling someone by their first name or their last name isn’t by default rude or polite. It all depends on the context,” she said.
No matter what the conclusion is to the debate, Baese-Berk is grateful to see the discussion happening online.
“I think it’s great we’re having this conversation. It helps us think through how we use language the way we do.”
Yahoo News reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not immediately hear back.
