Travis Kelce‘s name has popped up in quite a few headlines in recent months—and yet, we’re just now finding out that we’ve been mispronouncing his name the entire time (don’t worry, so has Travis).
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 34, who’s currently in a relationship with Taylor Swift, 34, has always been referred to as “Travis Kel-see.” However, on January 13, his Kansas City Chiefs teammate, Chris Jones, set the record straight during a Chiefs game against the Miami Dolphins.
On Instagram, the NFL shared a video of Jones’s brief exchange with his teammates on the sidelines with the caption, “@stonecoldjones95 making sure everyone knows the real pronunciation of ‘Kelce.'”
In the clip, Jones says, “So y’all know it’s not even Travis Kel-see? It’s Travis Kels.” So in other words, the “e” at the end of Kelce is silent. Who would’ve thought?
As it turns out, though, this little-known fact was also news to Travis and his brother, Jason, who didn’t know the correct pronunciation of their last name until their mid-20s. (So no, it’s not just us.)
In a 2023 episode of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, Travis and Jason revealed that their dad, Ed Kelce, never corrected people on how to properly pronounce their last name. As a result, the siblings (and other family members) wound up mispronouncing their last name for years.
On the podcast, Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, asked his father, “Why in the world did you change your name out of nowhere and now we are Kel-see? Why did we think that our name was Kel-see for the first 24 years… 27 years of my life, 25 of Trav’s?”
In response, Ed said, “I never changed my name out of nowhere…I got tired of correcting people.”
Fortunately, Ed never took the mispronunciations personally. In fact, when asked if he wanted to be called “Kels” going forward, he said, “Do whatever you want. I did.”
Travis took it all in stride and, like his dad, confirmed that he’s willing to go by both pronunciations. Meanwhile, Jason joked, “I’ll go by Kel-see. Don’t call me Kels.”
We’d have never guessed.
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