Travis Etienne is setting the record straight.
The running back made his first appearance in New Orleans after signing a four-year, $52 million free agency deal with the Saints and he gave the local media a lesson in how to say his name properly.
“Travis Ay-chan,” he told reporters at his introductory press conference. ‘So it’d be like A-c-h-a-n-e, and that’s how you always say Travis Etienne.”
Luckily, the 27-year-old Louisiana native knows where it all went wrong — and laid some of the mispronunciation blame on himself.
“When I went to college, I kept telling them my name every day, every day, every day, and after like they just couldn’t get it,” the former Clemson star said. “I’m like, ‘It’s Ee-Tee-En, how you see it is how you say it.’ It just took off because it was easy for the announcers to say it, I didn’t have to correct them every day to say my name.”
Etienne — and the incorrect pronunciation of his name — took off during him time in South Carolina, where he won a national championship in 2018 and racked up plenty of awards as a three-time All-American and two-time ACC Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He parlayed that success into being a first-round NFL draft pick (No. 25 overall) in 2021 by the Jaguars.
In four seasons in Jacksonville, he thrice posted 1,000-yard seasons, totaling 3,798 yards over 66 games with 25 rushing touchdowns to go with 1,338 receiving yards and seven scores through the air.
Now in New Orleans, the rampaging runner is happy to get back to his Louisiana Creole roots — and that starts with his name.
“When I started learning more about my last name and how it came about and things like that, it kinda stuck, it made sense,” Etienne said.
“I’m very much open to being Travis ‘Ay-Chan’ again, just being myself, I don’t have to correct people here on how to say my name each and every day. And I kinda love that. Just get back to me.”