I remember during the previous election season, Kamala told us all how to pronounce her name by sharing her Momala story. This isn’t hard, folks.
(This link is recent, but she shared the story in 2019 which is how I remember the correct pronunciation.)
Ugh! Not the owner of an unusual name here but I find this infuriating.
I’m pretty sure that Kamala’s Indian mother knows how to pronounce the Indian name she gave her daughter better than some rando Indian woman in an article. I find it pretty annoying that some media outlet is running an article saying she doesn’t know how to pronounce her own name.
At best it’s possible that pronunciation may differ based in different regions of India. I’ll be happy to ask my daughter’s Indian girlfriend. She’s from the state of Kerala which is pronounced CARE-ah-la with the middle syllable clearly in there but the emphasis on the first syllable just like KAMala.
I know my super common American English name is pronounced differently in different parts of the US.
Heck, even in my immediate family we pronounce my brother’s name differently. My mother, who hails from Boston, pronounces it Mah-k, while the rest of us say Mar-k. She also pronounces my (Irish) name slightly differently as it also has vowels and an R in it but her pronunciation isn’t quite as noticeable as it is with my brother.
It may well be true that in Chennai, India, the pronunciation of Kamala sounds different.
But as you said - it’s not up to some random person to correct her on the pronunciation of her own name!! Perhaps she pronounces it as she does because that is the Anglicization (?) that worked best for her. Perhaps it was the way her mom chose to pronounce it.
As I mentioned up thread, I get this same type of correction from people who are from my mom’s country of origin. They consistently correct me on my own name because my name is an unusual variation of a more common name in that country.
It’s so unbelievably arrogant and most people have no idea how rude they’re being when they do this kind of thing.
Ha, I still chuckle when I hear how the town “Calais” in Maine is pronounced - “callous.” I agree that it’s each person’s right to pronounce their name the way they like.
I can live with how “Terre Haute” is pronounced in Indiana (terra hote), but when I hear how they pronounce “Versailles” it alternately cracks me up and drives me up the wall. (They pronounce it ver-sales…like Black Friday sales.) But, it’s their city and they get to choose how to pronounce it.
I too was at that moment thinking about Versailles and the Kentucky pronunciation thereof!!!
Milan and Cairo, both in Illinois, are not pronounced in the same manner as their European and African namesakes…
MY-lan
KAY-ro
This conversation made me think of Des Moines and Des Plaines.
Different states pronounce the same town name differently. I grew up and have lived the majority of my life in southcentral PA, so I was used to the Pennsylvania pronunciation of Ephrata. When I lived in Washington state, I was surprised to hear the pronunciation of its Ephrata.
Based on the Sanskrit version of the name, it should be pronounced with each consonant distinct. So it would be Kuh-muh-laa. I have an in-law who specializes in ancient languages, Sanskrit in particular, and we had an interesting discussion about this 5 years ago.
In the north of India, they spell it as Kamla and say it that way. Maybe influenced by Urdu.
The name varies in pronunciation in different regions of India. I have a friend who spells it the same way but pronounces it more like Komla. In south India, which is where Kamala Harris’ mother came from, the pronunciation is predominantly Sanskrit based.
It is unbelievably arrogant to correct a person’s pronunciation of their own name!
I worked for a doctor with the last name of Hwang, which her family pronounce Wong. A coworker, also from China, when asked by patients how to pronounce the name would tell people it doesn’t matter. I would sit there boiling that she wouldn’t have the sense to tell the patients or sales reps how to pronounce the name. One day I couldn’t take it any more and said, if does matter!
Fast forward a few months of her continuing not to reply to patient with the correct pronunciation, I got on to her about it. Her reply was the doctor pronounced her name wrong and was doing a disservice to her heritage. Of course this mad me madder for some reason; who was she to tell someone else how to say their own name.
The doctor and I had a conversation about this; she said in different areas it is indeed pronounced differently. We also agree that this coworker (none of us liked her) needed to be respectful. If I heard her and was able, I would answer the patient. Luckily the coworker transferred clinic as we were mean to her. 
After transferring to a 3rd clinic because those people were mean to her, and the same thing at the 3rd clinic, the company realized she was the problem, so fired her!
Can y’all elaborate on those pronunciations for those of us who are curious?
I love these.
I’m from Berkeley, CA, but I lived in London for a while and there is a square there called Berkeley Square but pronounced “Barkley”. It always cracks me up when Brits come here and refer to UCB as the “University of Barkley”.
Duh Moin Iowa. Dess Planes Illinois.
My dad’s middle name is Milan and pronounces it MY-lan, same as Milan, Michigan.
PA: Eff-ra-ta (emphasis on 1st syllable, all short vowel sounds
WA: Eff-fray-ta or Ee-fray-ta (emphasis on 2nd syllable)
Living in Boston, there were certain names I wouldn’t consider for our kids.
Mark (Mahk)
Heather (Heatha)
Brenda (Brender)
Linda (Linder)
And do we even need to get into MA town names?
Gloucester (Glawster)
Worcester (Woster)
Peabody (PEEbidy)
Liecester (Lester)
When S23 (who happens to be great with geography) asked if we were flying into des MOE ness, I told him he could not go to Iowa State.
Yesterday I heard a radio commentator in Boston making fun of LBJ’s accent. It made me laugh, because I frequently think how oddly that commentator pronounces almost everything. 
The MA town names mentioned above sound pretty much like their original English pronunciations to me. In contrast, Worcester Sauce was pronounced War-Chester-Shire sauce in Oklahoma :).