Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday called on residents in Florida’s Panhandle to prepare for Hurricane Isaias as the storm approached the Gulf Coast.
Forecasters expected Isaias to reach the coast Friday night or early Saturday as a major hurricane.
During his remarks, DeSantis also criticized the storm’s name—and said he would use a different one.
“I don’t know how to pronounce this, because it’s not normal,” DeSantis said. “I’m calling it Isaiah. You guys can call it what you want. I know that’s not how you pronounce this; it’s something else, but it’s weird and I’m just going to keep butchering it for the next 72 hours. And I’d rather just be that — so I’m calling it Isaiah.”
DeSantis was not the only Florida politician to take issue with the name. Republican Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a former Florida chief financial officer, raised the same complaint in a post on his personal X.com account.
“On behalf of NW FL, I have a request: can we use common American names people can pronounce for storms? During a disaster the last thing we need is everyone trying to figure out how to say “Isaias” (too many syllables). Think of first responders using radios near loud equipment,” Patronis posted.
On behalf of NW FL, I have a request: can we use common American names people can pronounce for storms? During a disaster the last thing we need is everyone trying to figure out how to say “Isaias” (too many syllables). Think of first responders using radios near loud equipment. https://t.co/yMXaDEfIzp
— Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) October 8, 2026
Where did Isaias come from?
Isaias, pronounced “Ees-eye-ee-us,” is the Spanish and Portuguese form of Isaiah, a name with Hebrew origins.
Although uncommon in the United States, the name is more familiar in Central and South America, especially in Guatemala and Mexico.
That background helps explain why Isaias was selected in 2009 to replace Ike on the Atlantic hurricane naming list.
Hurricane names for storms in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic are selected by the World Meteorological Organization’s Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee.
The committee includes representatives from meteorological and hydrological services across North and Central America and the Caribbean.
According to the WMO, several considerations guide the selection of hurricane names:
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Names should be short to make communication easier
They should be easy to pronounce
They should carry appropriate meaning across different languages
They must be unique, since the same names cannot be used in other regions
Not every storm named during the Atlantic hurricane season is expected to affect the United States. Mexico and Central America, where Spanish is widely spoken, also regularly face tropical storms and hurricanes.
Other non-English names on this year’s hurricane list included Cristobal, a Spanish name; Edouard, a French name; Marco, with Spanish and Portuguese roots; and Omar, a Hebrew-Arabic name. Next year’s list will feature Henri, a French name, and Imani, which comes from Swahili.
Isaias first appeared on a hurricane name list in 2014, but was not used for a hurricane until 2020.
According to video on the Florida Channel website, Gov. DeSantis pronounced the name correctly and without complaint during a storm update on Aug. 1, 2020.
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