Here’s how to pronounce Kamala — and why some say it’s important

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U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is set to take the stage for a debate on Tuesday evening with former U.S. president Donald Trump. Harris released her position on key issues, like taxes and climate change, on Monday through her campaign website. But one issue that has been ongoing since Harris started her career in politics has been her name, or rather, how to pronounce it.

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Over the years, there have been several explainers.

How to pronounce Kamala, according to Harris

In an interview with David Axelrod in 2017, when Harris was a California Senator, she described the meaning of her name.

“It’s an Indian name — a relatively common Indian name. People ask me how to pronounce it. There are many ways,” she said, about one minute and 40 seconds into the The Axes File podcast.

“If you were asking my grandmother, she’d say, ‘Kam-la.’ I usually help people pronounce by saying, just think of … comma then add a ‘la’ at the end.”

Her name means lotus flower, she told Axelrod.

“This flower sits on top of the water but its roots are grounded in the mud. That’s where you should be — you should be able to do both — have your feet firmly planted, even if things look lovely on top, to keep it grounded.

How to pronounce Kamala, according to her campaigns

In 2016, when Harris was a Democratic candidate for the California Senate, she released a video using children to explain how to say her name. The video, posted on her X account, included the incorrect pronunciations, like “Cam-el-uh,” “Kuh-mahl-uh,” and “Karmel-uh.”

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The correct pronunciation, as a child in the video says, is “comma-la.”

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Fast forward to this summer, Harris’ great-nieces appeared on stage during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The young girls, who were joined by actress Kerry Washington, explained in simple terms how to pronounce Harris’ first name to the crowd in late August. In a video of this event at the DNC, the explanation comes at the 56-second mark.

“First you say ‘Kama’ like a comma in a sentence,” one her great-nieces Amara said.

“Then you say ‘la’ like la-la-la-la-la,” said her other great-niece, Leela, as she sang out the latter half of the sentence.

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Variations in the pronunciation of Kamala

The pronunciation for Kamala — a common name for women in India — can “vary to some degree across the many, many languages and tongues” of the South Asian country, Canadian writer Scaachi Koul pointed out in a Slate article published in July.

“It’s not typically pronounced exactly like ‘comma-la,’ the way Americans would say it; instead, it’s more subtle, closer to ‘com’la,’” said Koul.

In the area where Harris’ mother’s family comes from, in Tamil Nadu, they would say the name “somewhere between ‘comma-la’ and ‘com’la,’ without “any real emphasis at all.”

“It’s smooth sailing, across her full name,” Koul said.

“It can be tough for tongues trained in English, but you almost have to skip gently over that second a—not entirely, but just enough so that it doesn’t sound as if you’re speaking in punctuation.”

Why some say it’s important to get it right

Headlines about Trump being accused of mispronouncing Harris’ name on purpose have been circulating ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections in November. Publications like NPR, Vogue and The Independent have reported that it can be damaging to an entire culture.

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“Some may find name misspellings and mispronunciations relatively inconsequential,” wrote journalist Mekita Rivas for Vogue in August.

“But as a multiracial woman born in the United States to immigrant parents from two different cultures, I know there’s nothing inconsequential about it.”

Intentionally mispronouncing Harris’ name or someone who has a “less traditional (name) in the American context … (is like) trying to suggest they’re less American, that they’re less worthy of you saying their name correctly in the first place,” professor of psychology at the University of Michigan Myles Durkee told NPR in an article published in August.

Confusion about how to pronounce Harris’ name is understandable, Washington pointed out while she was on stage at the DNC with Harris’ great-nieces.

“Disrespect is not,” she said.

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