First things first. Did you know that Ty Pennington is not his actual name? As revealed in Pennington's 2019 memoir, Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America's Favorite Carpenter, he was born Gary Tygert Burton Jr., sharing a name with his father, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship. In the book, Pennington speaks about how his father was not a very present figure in his life. He characterizes his father as "a dreamer, but he isn't a great parent or a great financier."
When he was three years old, Pennington's parents separated and his mother, Yvonne Vickery, remarried to a man named Nick Pennington. Because Ty considers this man to be his real father, he decided to take Pennington as his last name. His chosen first name, Ty, is a shortened version of his middle name, Tygert.
The TV host and his biological father had a memorable meeting when Ty was 15 years old. In his memoir, Ty details the experience of building a sailboat together — which sank as soon as they put it in the water. Not only does this serve as foreshadowing for Pennington's future career, but, according to him, it encapsulates their relationship. "Someone's telling me, 'Uh, yeah, Ty? That ship has literally already sailed, and just in case you're wondering, well, there you go,'" he writes (via People).
