Grammar debate alert: Kamala Harris' vs Kamala Harris's - what's correct?

Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has unexpectedly reignited debates over grammar, particularly the use of apostrophes in possessive proper names.

The Associated Press Stylebook advises using only an apostrophe for singular proper names ending in "s," such as "Dickens’ novels" or "Jesus’ life." However, this rule is not universally accepted. The debate intensified when Harris’s selection of Walz, whose last name sounds like it ends in "s," brought renewed attention to the issue.

The debate about whether to write "Harris’" or "Harris’s" began when President Joe Biden cleared the way for Harris to run for office. The discussion was further fuelled by Walz’s appointment, which led Benjamin Dreyer, a retired copy chief and author of “Dreyer’s English,” to receive a flood of inquiries on the topic. “I was like, ‘All right, everybody just has to chill. I’ll be home in a little while and I can get to my desk,’” he said.

Dreyer supports adding an ’s, thus writing "Harris’s." Despite this, the AP Stylebook remains unchanged on this matter, according to Amanda Barrett, AP’s vice president for news standards and inclusion.

Linguist Timothy Pulju from Dartmouth College explained that historically, possessive forms of names ending in "s," like Jesus or Moses, did not include an apostrophe or an additional "s." Over time, the apostrophe was added to indicate possession, though pronunciation remained the same. “That became kind of the standard that I was taught and adhere to, even though in retrospect, I don’t think it’s a great standard,” he said.

Pulju expects the ’s form to become more common, though both forms are currently acceptable. “As long as people are communicating successfully, we say language is doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” he said. “If you can read it whichever way it’s written, then it seems like it’s working for people. They’re not getting confused about whose running mate Tim Walz is.”

If Harris wins in November, she would become the fourth U.S. president with a last name ending in "s" and the first since Rutherford B. Hayes, who was elected in 1876. Unlike Hayes, Harris’s campaign faces the scrutiny of modern social media, which has intensified the apostrophe debate.

Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee with a similar issue in 1984, recalled no such discussions about possessive forms at the time and agrees with the AP’s stance. “It sounds to me like it would be s, apostrophe, and that’s it,” he said.

The Harris campaign has not yet taken a definitive position. A recent press release from her New Hampshire team used "Harris’s," while a national press office update referred to "Harris’ seventh trip to Nevada."

AP