# Why was he called Pelé?

Source page: https://pele.wiki/footballer/questions/why-was-he-called-pele
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9

Nobody knows for certain. Pelé himself thought the nickname came from his childhood mispronunciation of Bilé, a goalkeeper at Vasco da Gama. He said that neither he nor his school friends knew what the word meant.

## Related

- The records that answer it in full: [Childhood in Três Corações and Bauru](https://pele.wiki/footballer/chapters/childhood-in-tres-coracoes-and-bauru), [Pelé](https://pele.wiki/footballer/people/pele)