Crj-700 captain reported misunderstanding the descend via clearance issued by ATC on arrival into ms...

Narrative:

FL280...we had been filed to msp via the bae.EAU9 (eau claire). The controller in a mumbling voice cleared us to what we believed he had said as 'descend via the eau claire arrival'. We dialed in the lowest of the published arrival of 11;000. A few minutes later we were told to contact the next controller on 134.3. After checking in he verified that we had been cleared to descend via kkilr 1. We responded we were on the eau claire. He mentioned this was happening a lot; and that we were now cleared to descend via the kkilr 1. We attempted to load the arrival and our route had no transition to the killer. He cleared us to cmaac.obviously due to the second controllers remark that this happens frequently there appears to be confusion with similar sounding arrivals. Reviewing the arrivals; when we had been given the kkilr; there were no transition on the previous arrival to complete this without being specifically [cleared] direct to a new fix.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-700 Captain reported misunderstanding the descend via clearance issued by ATC on arrival into MSP. Controller reportedly stated there was a history of misunderstanding the subject arrivals (the EAU CLAIRE and the KKILR).

Narrative: FL280...We had been filed to MSP via the BAE.EAU9 (EAU CLAIRE). The controller in a mumbling voice cleared us to what we believed he had said as 'descend via the Eau Claire arrival'. We dialed in the lowest of the published arrival of 11;000. A few minutes later we were told to contact the next controller on 134.3. After checking in he verified that we had been cleared to descend via KKILR 1. We responded we were on the Eau Claire. He mentioned this was happening a lot; and that we were now cleared to descend via the KKILR 1. We attempted to load the arrival and our route had no transition to the Killer. He cleared us to CMAAC.Obviously due to the second controllers remark that this happens frequently there appears to be confusion with similar sounding arrivals. Reviewing the arrivals; when we had been given the KKILR; there were no transition on the previous arrival to complete this without being specifically [cleared] direct to a new fix.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1253006
Time
Date	201504
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZMP.ARTCC
State Reference	MN
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Crj-700 captain reported misunderstanding the descend via clearance issued by ATC on arrival into msp. Controller reportedly stated there was a history of misunderstanding the subject arrivals (the eau claire and the kkilr).