Name of Kansas City Chiefs player lands on list of most mispronounced words in 2021
There was quite a hubbub in July when Chiefs fans realized they may have been pronouncing tight end Travis Kelce’s name wrong since ... he joined the team.
A clip from a podcast resurfaced and Kelce said his name is actually pronounced Kel-ss, not Kel-see. Teammates and fans couldn’t believe they had Kelce’s name wrong all this time.
Kelce quelled the storm by saying it was OK to say his name either way. Then training camp opened, and the focus was on football.
The question of how to say Kelce’s name has resurfaced.
The US Captioning Company and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters chose the most mispronounced words of 2021. Kelce made the list, and Babbel Magazine provided proper pronunciation for all the words.
Unfortunately, the magazine also incorrectly noted Kelce’s brother, Jason (who is the center for the Philadelphia Eagles) first revealed the family name was being said wrong.
Babbel Magazine said Kelce should be pronounced KEL-ss, and wrote “Kelce revealed on the radio this year that his teammates and the media had been mispronouncing his name for years.”
Among the other most mispronounced words in the United States are the fast-food chain Chipotle, tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Scottish city Glasgow and a Gen-Z insult, Cheugy.
“As a Babbel Live Spanish teacher, I’m usually very concerned about pronunciation,” Babbel’s Esteban Touman said in a YouTube video. “As an English learner, it’s kind of fun to see native speakers pronounce words incorrectly.”
To be fair to native speakers everywhere, Travis Kelce did say his name could be pronounced either way.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 10:03 AM.
