the author calls it Linux,, and publishes his kernel as linux-<version>.tar. anything else you refer to as Linux is a misnomer, a misrepresentation, a result of a misconception brought about by such ambiguous terms as "Linux kernel" and "Linux distribution". some people misunderstand the former as "kernel of Linux" rather than "kernel Linux". some misunderstand the former as meaning everything in the distribution is Linux, which is obviously not the case. Linux is less than 1% of the typical distro; GNU is more like 10%. the other 89% is mostly software made for the combination of GNU with Linux (even if some people think of that as Linux), or specifically for GNU, or inspired (like Linux) by GNU's campaigning for freedom.

fairy tale: once upon a time, there was an operating system named Lennox, that after years of development, had only just started implementing a GUI with a revolutionary approach.
someone else announced a plan to develop a GUI operating system, but ended up realizing most of the job was done, so they focused on the missing bit, took a beaten path and quickly released it as FreeX, recommending users to use it with Lennox.
a third party built and published them together, naming the combination Canoe.
Canoe was a hit, many started writing apps to run on Canoe, and contributing to the development of both Lennox and FreeX.
users, reminded that Canoe was nothing but FreeX on top of Lennox, retort by pointing at the many apps.
fair? unjust? toxic?