Ron and Casey DeSantis pronounce same last name differently. Why?

Given a chance to settle how his last name is pronounced, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former baseball player, instead threw a curveball.

“It’s ridiculous,” DeSantis told Fox News on Thursday when asked whether he wanted to “correct the record” over whether it’s Dee-Santis or Deh-Santis. “These stupid things. Listen, the way to pronounce my last name: Winner.”

DeSantis’ unwillingness to clarify how to say his name during his first campaign swing as a presidential candidate has raised eyebrows in the political world, including jabs from former President Donald Trump, DeSantis’ chief rival for the 2024 GOP nomination.

DeSantis has alternated between the two since his political career began.

In 2018, according to Axios, DeSantis, whose childhood nickname was “D.,” used “Dee.” His wife Casey used “Deh.”

During his presidential campaign launch last month, he introduced himself on a video as “Dee-Santis,” but in a follow-up video just a little later he went by the other one. His campaign team has not clarified which he now prefers.

“It is interesting, if nothing else, that he doesn’t have a standard pronunciation for his own last name after 40-plus years,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida.

“I read that he preferred one way and then his wife preferred another and so he just sort of let it ride,” Jewett said. “I don’t know, maybe it’s as simple as that.”

Trump has repeatedly brought up the discrepancy to mock him, using his own nicknames for DeSantis in the process.

“Have you heard that ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious wants to change his name, again,” Trump wrote on his social media site Wednesday. “He is demanding that people call him DeeeSantis, rather than DaSantis. Actually, I like ‘Da’ better, a nicer flow, so I am happy he is changing it. He gets very upset when people, including reporters, don’t pronounce it correctly. Therefore, he shouldn’t mind, DeSanctimonious?”

Jewett said DeSantis’ opponents, ranging from Trump to liberals who have called him “DeathSantis” or over the governor’s COVID-19 record, “have used an infinite variety of variations of his last name to try to criticize him or cut him down. And this probably contributes slightly to that.”