With the recent announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, the “first-naming” of her has intensified. Vice President Harris is frequently called “Kamala” when her male opponents are addressed by their last names: Trump and Vance.
Vice President Harris is not the only politician to experience this problem. In 1972, when former U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder—the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado—ran for the seat, her male opponent called her “Little Patsy” to try to dismiss her. First-naming has also happened often to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Governor Gretchen Whitmer. With Harris, the pattern of just using a first name continues.
On top of that, some people have not even bothered to pronounce Harris’s first name correctly. (It is pronounced “Comma-la”). Mispronunciation is one way to disparage someone. It’s a subtle but effective undermining tactic, communicating that a person is of so little value it’s not even worth learning the proper pronunciation of their name, let alone taking them seriously.
First-naming, a new term we introduce, is another form of untitling, omitting a woman’s professional title when men’s are used. As we wrote in Glass Walls, we coined the term untitling to describe women’s titles being omitted and replaced with first names in professional settings. It happens often to women doctors, elected officials, and others working in professions that use titles.
Untitling can also occur when women are referred to as “Mrs.,” as has happened to First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The problem with first-naming and untitling is that they diminish women and detract from their authority, whether the speaker intends to do so or not. These linguistic tactics are a way of disrespecting women. First-naming women in professional contexts signals that they belong doing caretaking work in the home, rather than participating in public life, especially engaging in any work that involves power and authority.
Sometimes women may indicate a preference to be called by their first name or another moniker, though typically in a specific context. For example, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed dismay with government officials untitling women members of Congress, but she also noted that her Twitter/X followers could continue to call her “AOC.”
Similarly, Vice President Harris has branded her campaign account as “KamalaHQ.” Women deciding what they want to be called in specific contexts is a good thing. Their choices should be honored. However, that doesn’t remove responsibility from using women’s titles and surnames in other settings, especially formal ones.
There are some strategies we all can use to call women by appropriate names in professional settings.
- Make it standard practice to use women’s professional titles when talking or writing about them and when introducing them.
- Recognize that many people who untitle or first-name women are doing so unintentionally. Drawing attention to the problem will help. If a colleague talks about “Kamala,” respond with, “Vice President Harris.” If it happens on social media, you can reply, “Please use her title and last name: Vice President Harris.”
- Only use a woman’s first name if she has invited you to do so, and then limit that usage to the specific context of the invitation. In formal settings, continue using her title and last name.
- Learn the correct pronunciation of someone’s name before using it. Be especially diligent about proper pronunciation in public and formal settings.
- Use “flip it to test it.” If you would not first-name a man in a certain context, then don’t first-name a woman in that context. Similarly, if you would not untitle him, then don’t untitle her.
These are easy steps we all can take to ensure that women are given the professional respect they are due and to communicate that they are as welcome and valued in public life as men.
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