Date: 202103
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: SCT.TRACON, CA
Light: Night
Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class B LAX
ATC / advisory: TRACON SCT
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Distraction
Second reporter function: Captain; Pilot Flying
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Contributing factors: Procedure; Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: Filed to climb via DOTSS except maintain 5;000 feet.  Tower cleared us for takeoff on a 210 heading up to 5;000 feet. I switched over to departure and checked on passing 1;500 feet with heading and assigned altitude of 5;000 feet. Departure cleared us direct PEVEE and climb 17;000 feet. I believed he just told me direct ENNEY and 17;000 feet; which I read back. We put it in the box and executed it. Then verified 17;000 feet in altitude window. The Captain said he was surprised we are heading back to ENNEY. I immediately called departure to clarify fix. They had a controller swap during that short time. The new controller advised us to fly 180 heading to PEVEE.Change the name of fix. Depending on how I read and pronounce and hear ENNEY and PEVEE sound the same if you don't hear the P with PEVEE. Which was the case with us. I also read back ENNEY; which the Controller didn't catch me saying incorrectly.


Second narrative: We were cleared on the DOTSS2.CNERY. We were cleared for takeoff on Runway 24L at LAX and assigned heading 210 after departure. We had VNAV selected and deselected LNAV once we received the revised clearance. After takeoff we contacted SoCal and were given a clearance to a fix on the departure. We believed the clearance was to ENNEY intersection. I began the turn to ENNEY and questioned the turn because it didn't make sense to turn that far right to join the departure. The F/O then asked for clarification on the clearance. There appeared to have been a Controller change while we were turning.  The new Controller then cleared us to turn to a 180 heading. The Controller clarified the clearance and cleared us direct PEVEE. The remainder of the flight was normal.  The SoCal frequency had some static on the frequency which made it a little hard to hear the clearance. There was also some confusion on which fix we were cleared to  due the the frequency static and due to misunderstanding of the annunciation of the ENNEY fix.In hind sight I don't think we clearly heard the fix we were cleared to. We started to ENNEY and the large turn is what made me question the clearance but I don't think we heard the clearance well enough and should have questioned the clearance earlier. The F/O read back ENNEY but I think it might have fell through the cracks due to the Controller change at the same time.


Synopsis: Air carrier flight crew reported turning toward the wrong fix after having difficulty understanding the clearance issued by ATC.