When Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, she likely didn’t anticipate igniting a fiery debate among grammar enthusiasts about apostrophes. Yet, the controversy quickly flared up.
“The lower the stakes, the bigger the fight,” remarked Ron Woloshun, a creative director and digital marketer in California. Woloshun, like many others, swiftly waded into the debate on social media shortly after Harris’s announcement, sharing his views on possessive proper nouns.
According to The Associated Press Stylebook, singular proper names ending in S should only use an apostrophe: Dickens’ novels, Hercules’ labors, Jesus’ life. This guideline, however, is not universally accepted.
The argument on possessive proper names ending in S gained momentum after President Joe Biden endorsed Harris for the presidential run last month. Is it Harris’ or Harris’s? The inclusion of Walz, with his surname that sounds like it ends in an S, only intensified the discourse, noted Benjamin Dreyer, retired copy chief at Random House and author of “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style.”
Dreyer found himself bombarded with queries just minutes after the announcement, even as he was at the dentist.
“I told everyone to relax. I’d deal with it once I got home and could sit at my desk,” Dreyer recalled.
Consensus holds that Walz’s is correct, yet confusion endures around Harris’. Dreyer asserts that the correct form is Harris’s.
“Using the ’s is simpler, freeing your brain for more crucial matters,” Dreyer advised.
Woloshun echoed this view on the social platform X, where discussions about apostrophes were rife. “The rule is simple: If you pronounce the S, spell the S,” he stated.
This stance aligns with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, but contrasts with the AP.
Despite evolving on various fronts over the years, the AP has no plan to alter its possessive guidance, stated Amanda Barrett, vice president for news standards and inclusion at AP.
“This longstanding policy has served us well. We’ve seen no pressing need to change it,” Barrett explained. “We recognize there’s a conversation, and people make different grammatical choices. That’s perfectly fine. Everyone selects what works best for them.”
Timothy Pulju, a senior lecturer in linguistics at Dartmouth College, explained that until the 17th or 18th century, possessive proper names ending in S, such as Jesus or Moses, were often written without an apostrophe. Later, the apostrophe was added (Jesus’ or Moses’) to indicate possession, though pronunciation stayed the same.
“That became the standard I was taught, even though, in hindsight, it’s not a great one,” Pulju commented.
Linguists see writing as a reflection of speech, which has evolved. Pulju expects the ’s form to eventually dominate. Still, he and the Merriam-Webster dictionary deem both forms acceptable.
“As long as communication is clear, language is doing its job,” he stated. “If readers understand it, it’s working. People aren’t confused about who Tim Walz’s running mate is.”
If victorious in November, Harris would become the fourth U.S. president with a last name ending in S, the first since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876—a time devoid of social media debates about apostrophes. Harris is the first nominee with such a surname since 1988, when Democrat Michael Dukakis lost to George H.W. Bush.
Now 90, Dukakis said in a phone interview on Monday that he doesn’t recall any similar discussions during his candidacy. He agrees with AP policy.
“It seems to me it should be just the apostrophe,” Dukakis commented.
The Harris campaign has yet to definitively stance on the issue. On Monday, a New Hampshire team press release boasted “Harris’s positive vision,” while a national press office memo from the previous day referred to “Harris’ seventh trip to Nevada.”
The story has been updated to clarify that Harris would be the fourth president with a last name ending in S, not the third, and that Dukakis’s loss occurred in 1988, not 1984.
