diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 2653177f52d90..577e029987011 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ sub load_docs {
 } elsif (!(-f $codespellfile)) {
 	# If /usr/share/codespell/dictionary.txt is not present, try to find it
 	# under codespell's install directory: <codespell_root>/data/dictionary.txt
-	if (($codespell || $help) && which("codespell") ne "" && which("python") ne "") {
+	if (($codespell || $help) && which("python3") ne "") {
 		my $python_codespell_dict = << "EOF";
 
 import os.path as op
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ sub load_docs {
 print(codespell_file, end='')
 EOF
 
-		my $codespell_dict = `python -c "$python_codespell_dict" 2> /dev/null`;
+		my $codespell_dict = `python3 -c "$python_codespell_dict" 2> /dev/null`;
 		$codespellfile = $codespell_dict if (-f $codespell_dict);
 	}
 }