Voters in Arcis-sur-Aube, in north-eastern France, will decide Sunday whether to re-elect their mayor, Charles Hittler.

Among his opponents are 28-year-old Antoine Renault-Zielinski – who is of Polish descent, rather than Ukrainian.

Mr Hittler told the BBC that he was used to “the occasional joke made about my name”, but things had “gone completely crazy” online.

His father, from the French-German border region of Alsace, had decided against changing the family’s name after the war because it was “a huge administrative headache and it would have cost a lot of money”, he said.

One of his sons has taken to pronouncing the name with a French twist – “Hit-lay” – to avoid embarrassment, Mr Hittler added.

Ironically, Mr Hittler is the mainstream centre-right candidate in the election, while Mr Renault-Zielinski is running for the far-right Patriot movement.

Mr Hittler had a narrow lead over Mr Renault-Zielinski and another candidate, Annie Soucat, in the first round of voting.