![\"Travis](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2247544747.jpg\")
Travis Etienne #1 of the Jacksonville Jaguars is congratulated by teammates after scoring a touchdown. Getty Images<\/p>\nTravis Etienne is setting the record straight.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis Ay-chan,\u201d he told reporters at his introductory press conference. \u2018So it\u2019d be like A-c-h-a-n-e, and that\u2019s how you always say Travis Etienne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travis Etienne #1 of the Jacksonville Jaguars is congratulated by teammates after scoring a touchdown. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Luckily, the 27-year-old Louisiana native knows where it all went wrong \u2014 and laid some of the mispronunciation blame on himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went to college, I kept telling them my name every day, every day, every day, and after like they just couldn\u2019t get it,\u201d the former Clemson star said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018It\u2019s Ee-Tee-En, how you see it is how you say it.\u2019 It just took off because it was easy for the announcers to say it, I didn\u2019t have to correct them every day to say my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etienne \u2014 and the incorrect pronunciation of his name \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Now in New Orleans, the rampaging runner is happy to get back to his Louisiana Creole roots \u2014 and that starts with his name.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started learning more about my last name and how it came about and things like that, it kinda stuck, it made sense,\u201d Etienne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very much open to being Travis \u2018Ay-Chan\u2019 again, just being myself, I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Etienne is setting the record straight. The running back made his first appearance in New Orleans after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[843,7,55,6,89225,2592,9,10,7150],"class_list":{"0":"post-810520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-clemson-tigers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-free-agency-2026","13":"tag-nfl-free-agency","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-entertainment","16":"tag-travis-etienne"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116223948525273957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}