Travis Etienne Jr. Admits Everyone Has Been Saying His Name Wrong Since Clemson

Names are hard, man.

I still have to slow down and hang on to something anytime I have to pronounce a name like "Giannis Antetokounmpo" or "Alexander Nedeljkovic." 

However, I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on NFL running back Travis Etienne Jr.'s name and how you pronounce it.

It turns out I, and everyone else, was mistaken.

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After spending the first five seasons of his NFL career with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Etienne signed a four-year deal with the New Orleans Saints.

I, like most people, pronounced his name "Ee-tee-en."

Bzzzz. Wrong.

During his introductory news conference in the Big Easy, he went ahead and dropped a truth bomb by revealing that we've all been saying his name wrong this entire time.

"So, growing up, it (was) Travis ‘Ay-chan,’" he explained, spelling it out A-C-H-A-N-E. 

"When I went to college, I kept telling them my name every day, every day, every day," the former Clemson Tiger said. "After like four weeks, they just couldn’t get it. So I’m like, ‘Man, it’s Ee-tee-en. How you see it is how you say it.'"

Now that I look at it, it makes more sense. Etienne is a Louisiana native, and that French/Cajun way of pronouncing it clicks for me.

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However, Etienne said that another reason the other — read: wrong — pronunciation of his name took off is because it was simply easier for announcers to say.

"I didn't have to correct them every day to say my name (the right way)," he said.

So what will it be in New Orleans?

"I'm very much open to being ‘Travis Ay-chan’ again," he said. "Being myself again. I don't have to correct people here every day."