Please excuse the ignorance of a non-USA.
In all other USA elections, I’ve noticed that the candidates are referred to by their last names. Harris, however, is referred to as Kamala by both the opposing party (which make sense, if the idea was to disrespect) as well as by her own party (which confounds me). Why is Harris different?
Am I the one being disrespectful by referring to her by her last name (am I the one in the wrong)? If so, I’ll start (kind of late, I’m gathering) referring to her by her first name.
It’s been bothering me each time I see something about “Trump vs. Kamala”. I finally broke down and asked.
Edit: thanks everyone! I’m glad I wasn’t offensive :) and your explanations make sense. I will continue to use last names, since I find it more respectful, (but still don’t hold first name usage against anyone who chooses to haha) until asked otherwise.
Some people speculate it’s the gender difference, like how HRC was typically called Hillary. I’m not sure though. I call her Harris but a lot of people thought Kamala was better since it’s a more unique name. Myself, I don’t think she needs that to have greater personal appeal and saying Harris would have helped make her seem more presidential. Having a foreign or Black sounding name is not really an advantage with the voters she needed to court, either. Of course, everything about this election incredibly stupid anyway so who cares at this point.
Hillary was called that because there are many people called Clinton, including her much more famous and successful husband.
I called Hillary “Hillary”, but that’s to distinguish her from Bill Clinton, who I called “Clinton”.
Honestly, you have to be a very commonly-used name before I’m going to use a single name for general purposes at all rather than a full name, so the set of people who have the chance to get into the “one name club” is very small.