Here It Is: The Deez-Nuts Origin Story

MARCH 13--This is the Deez-Nuts origin story.

Not the candy bar or the Dr. Dre song, but the Wisconsin man whose legal first name is a favorite euphemism when making testicle and other jokes.

In April 2011, shortly before his 30th birthday, Derrick Lee Kroll (seen above) decided it was time for a change. A name change.

So the Green Bay resident filled out by hand a two-page “Petition For Name Change” form, had the document notarized, and submitted it--along with a $164.50 filing fee--to the local Circuit Court. Along with his address and date of birth, Kroll listed himself as disabled and affirmed that he was not a sex offender.

As for why he wanted to change his name, Kroll provided a brief explanation: “I with out a dout HATE MY NAME.”

In place of Derrick, Kroll wanted to legally be known as Dez-Nuts. Dez-Nuts Lee Kroll.

Within two months of his court application, Kroll appeared before Judge Timothy Hinkfuss, who granted the petition. In short order, Kroll amended his driver’s license to reflect his new name.  

Kroll kept the Dez-Nuts handle until September 2017, when he once again filed a Circuit Court petition.

This time, he asked the court to approve a change in his first name from Dez-Nuts to Deez-Nuts (and sought to have the switch memorialized on his birth certificate). As for the reason to again change his name, Kroll wrote, “It was not spelled right.”

This was a reference to his 2011 “Dez-Nuts” application. It is unclear why Kroll let more than six years pass before correcting this purported error.

Judge Tammy Jo Hock granted the Dez-to-Deez transformation.

The name Deez-Nuts has subsequently appeared on Kroll’s 2023 divorce filings, as well as the deed to his Walnut Street residence. Now 42, he is also listed as the defendant in a criminal complaint charging him with battery and disorderly conduct with a weapon in connection with a March 5 domestic confrontation with his daughter and her boyfriend, both of whom are 19.

When cops arrived at Kroll’s home, he handed over a Wisconsin state ID with the name Deez-Nuts Lee Kroll. An officer reported that, “Deez-Nuts appeared to be highly intoxicated, but followed officers’ commands. I walked up to the top of the stairs and took Deez-Nuts into custody.” The cop added that he also “read Deez-Nuts his Miranda Rights.”

When Kroll’s daughter called 911, she reported that her father “was intoxicated and naked and was holding a gun earlier.” She later told police that Kroll struck her in the head. Officers seized a black BB gun that resembled a pistol.

Kroll is free on $2000 bond and is scheduled for an April 24 status conference in the misdemeanor case. (2 pages)