Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce claims everyone has been pronouncing his name incorrectly for years - but his mom says he's wrong

Travis Kelce says that for years his name has been incorrectly pronounced as "Kel-see" instead of "Kells," but his mom says their name is "Kel-see."

• Just how to pronounce Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce's last name is a mystery.
• In a resurfaced Barstool Sports clip, he claimed his name is pronounced "Kells," not "Kel-see."
• As fans and teammates reacted in shock, his mother said his name is pronounced "Kel-see."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says "everyone" has been pronouncing his last name incorrectly for years, but his mother says he's wrong.

In a clip from a Barstool Sports podcast that was recently resurfaced on Twitter, Kelce, 31, said his name is pronounced "Kells," and not "Kel-see," as fans, announcers, and others have been saying since he joined the NFL in 2013.

But local news channel FOX 4 KC called up his mom to get confirmation - and she said it's pronounced "Kel-see."

-Braiden Turner (@bturner23) July 14, 2021

Kelce's brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, also pronounced his name "Kel-see" in a video from the 2011 NFL combine.

The Barstool clip trended on Twitter, with many of Kelce's teammates reacting in sock.

Teammate Patrick Mahomes said Kelce had "never corrected him," and that "You learn something new everyday."

As the Barstool video and Kelce's teammates' reactions trended, a clip of Kelce from 2020 also showed him pronouncing his last name as "Kells."

-Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) July 14, 2021

Jason Kelce, meanwhile, told SportsRadio 94WIP that both his brother and mother are technically right.

He said that while his wider family goes by "Kells," his immediate has gone by "Kel-see" for decades because his father was "tired of correcting everybody" and opted to use that permanently "out of pure laziness."