Tech engineer, Elon Musk, and music artist, Grimes, welcomed their first child together on May 4. While many have taken interest in the couple, deeming the two to be an odd pair, the announcement of their child’s name has seemed to spark the most controversy.
Musk revealed to a follower on Twitter who said “We need the name we literally need it,” that the baby’s name is X Æ A-12. Social media soon became fascinated with the news, questioning what the name meant and how it is pronounced.
Grimes took to instagram to explain the unconventional name, stating, “It’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I. The Canadian musician went on to explain that Æ is the Elven spelling of AI, which is shorthand for artificial intelligence.
Following Grimes’ explanation, Musk was interviewed on the Joe Rogan Experience where he stated, “First of all, my partner is the one that, actually, mostly, came up with the name,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said. “Yeah, she’s great at names.” He then proceeded to give a slightly different pronunciation of the name, stating, “it’s just X, the letter x, and then the Æ is pronounced Ash.” He added that the “A-12,” is an ode to the Archangel 12, the “precursor to SR-71, the coolest plane ever.” So according to Musk, his son’s name is X Ash Archangel Twelve.
Wile this is the couple’s first child together, Musk has five other children from a previous marriage — twins Griffin and Xavier and triplets Damian, Saxon and Kai. Rogan asked how it felt to have another child now.
Musk said, “Actually I think it’s better being older and having a kid. I appreciate it more. Babies are awesome.”
While it has not been confirmed where Grimes gave birth, many have brought to attention the fact that if the child was born in California, where the couple currently live, the name may not be accepted by the state of California. According to California regulations, you are only allowed to use the 26 letters in the alphabet for a baby name and an apostrophe if needed. Numbers, Roman numerals, emojis, accents or other symbols are not acceptable.
While many took to social media to joke and share memes about Musk and Grimes’ strange baby name, Academy Award winner, Gwyneth Paltrow, who notoriously named her child with Coldplay musician, Chris Martin, Apple, joked on Instagram, “I think we got beat for most controversial baby name.”
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