Kamala Devi Harris is the 49th Vice President of the United States and many people have questions about her name. First, it’s pronounced KAH-mah-lah, with emphasis on the first syllable. If you can say Camelot, you can say Kamala. Kamala is a fairly common girl’s name in India, but not quite at the top of the charts. In the United States, it has not been recorded as a top 1000 girls’ name for the past century. However it’s possible that might change! It will be interesting to watch the baby name charts for 2025 and beyond.

What Does the Name Kamala Mean?

Kamala is a Sanskrit name meaning Lotus Flower. Sanskrit is an ancient language that originated in India and is considered one of the world’s oldest recorded languages dating back over 3,500 years. It includes Hindi, Bengali, and Marathi, as well as a source of vocabulary and concepts in numerous other languages and cultures. Sanskrit is the primary language of Hinduism and is also used in sacred texts of Buddhism and Jainism.

In Indian lore, Kamala is another name for Sri-Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, royal power and abundance. In Hindu temples in Southern India, she will often be adorned in a garland of lotuses, showing her close association with the flower. It is a wonderful name to bestow upon a child to which you wish a blessed life. Kamala Harris’s middle name, Devi, literally means “Goddess.”

The Name Kamala in Culture

In Season 5, Episode 21 (The Perfect Mate) of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard falls for with a woman named Kamala, played by Famke Janssen. This particular Kamala is what’s called an empathic metamorph, a woman with the genetic aptitude to draw in and attract any man.

Kamala Bahuguna (1923–2001), was an Indian politician, elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh as member of the Janata Party in 1977.

Kamala Balakrishnan (1930–2018) was a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Armed Force and immunologist. She was president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), and director of the Transplantation Immunology Division in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kamala Bose (1947–2012), Indian classical vocalist specializing in Hindustani Classical music.

Kamala Chakravarty (born 1928), a classical musician and dancer, known for accompanying renowned sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. From 1967 until the late 1970s she played with Shankar in many of his acclaimed performances in the U.S. and abroad.

Kamala Lakshmi Narayanan is an international Bharatanatyam artist, a southern Indian classical dance which combines artistic expression with rhythmic footwork. In India she is known simply as “Kamala” and her name has become synonymous with the art.

Mispronouncing a Name as Aggression

Many opponents to Vice President Harris have mispronounced her name – either on accident or on purpose. Mispronouncing someone’s name, especially when it’s been repeatedly discussed and pronounced correctly in the media, is a form of microagression (or maybe not so micro).

Making fun of a person’s name is a form of agression and bullying that can start in elementary school and gives many a parent cause to consider this when choosing baby names. It can also be a clear sign of racism, sexism, ageism, or classism – depending on who’s the aggressor and the victim.

It is expected, though, that this kind of bullying will end as one grows older and matures. Adults who bully others by mispronouncing names just reveal their immaturity and ignorance.

For a discussion on names and prejudice, listen to this episode from The Baby Names Podcast: