You've Been Pronouncing Travis Kelce's Last Name Wrong This Whole Time
On the heels of a 2023 Super Bowl victory and a headline-making relationship with Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce became the third-most Googled person in 2023. In early 2024, Kelce was again a highly Googled name as fans were curious about the proper way to say his name. The search "How to pronounce Travis Kelce last name" was up a whopping 1,850% during the third week of January, while "How do you pronounce Kelce" was up 400% and "Pronounce Kelce" was right behind with a 300% increase. "How to pronounce Kelce" and "How to pronounce Travis Kelce" were right there with a 250% uptick.
Those searches came on the heels of a viral clip that was shared by the NFL on Instagram of the tight end's Kansas City Chiefs teammate Chris Jones talking about the pronunciation while on the sidelines during a game. "So y'all know it's not even 'Travis Kel-see," Jones said to teammates in the clip. "It's 'Travis Kels' ... crazy, right?"
The correct pronunciation of the last name was the subject of lighthearted family conflict in February 2023 when the Chiefs star and his brother Jason Kelce had their father, Ed Kelce, on the "New Heights" podcast. "Why in the world did you change your name out of nowhere?" Jason asked their pops. "I never changed my name out of nowhere," Ed replied. "I got tired of correcting people."
Previously, Travis had left other teammates confounded about how to say his last name.
Patrick Mahomes did not know how to say Travis Kelce's name
Travis Kelce was on an episode of the "Bussin' With the Boys" podcast in November 2020 when the discussion of pronouncing last names came up. "I got 'Kel-see,' then I got 'Kels.' My real name is 'Kels,' so I mean I just kind of roll with the punches," the Kansas City Chiefs tight end revealed.
That conversation turned into a viral clip in July 2021, and it left a couple of Kelce's Chiefs teammates dumbstruck. "You learn something new everyday @tkelce," Patrick Mahomes wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, while retweeting the podcast clip. That made fellow teammate Tyreek Hill jump into the conversation. "[S]o I've been saying his name wrong this entire time," Hill wrote in response to the quarterback's tweet. Shortly after, Kelce jumped in the replies to set the record straight for Hill. "[Y]ou've been sayin it right man, I go by both ... One's my real name and one's a nick name," Kelce wrote to Hill. His teammates were not the only ones who were left confused.
As the podcast clip of the tight end saying his name was pronounced "Kels" made the rounds, several fans were flabbergasted. "Travis Kelce saying his last name is pronounced Kelc instead of Kelsee is easily the most disappointing part of 2021," one tweeted at the time. "I am in complete and utter shock...." another fan wrote about the last name revelation.