Elon Musk changed his son’s name. It’s not Geoff.
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Elon Musk and Grimes have had to change the name of their baby son from “X Æ A-12” to “X Æ A-Xii”.
Grimes revealed the change Sunday on Instagram. “Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws? What is the baby’s new name?” therealsainti asked her in a comment on a photo unrelated to her baby.
Grimes replied with the new name — “X Æ A-Xii” — but did not elaborate on the details behind the change.
Replying to another comment, Grimes seemed happy with the tweak: “Roman numerals. Looks better tbh.”
The pronunciation presumably remains the same. Musk revealed how to say his son’s name on Joe Rogan’s podcast earlier this month.
“First of all, my partner’s the one that mostly came up with the name,” Musk said of Grimes. “I mean it’s just X, the letter X, um, and the ‘Æ’ is pronounced, ‘Ash,’ and then, A-12 is my contribution.” He went on to say that A-12 stood for “Archangel 12, the precursor to the SR-71, coolest plane ever.”
According to one interpretation, all that boils down to saying it, “Ex Ash A Twelve.” Another suggestion is “Ex Aye Eye”.
Either way, some doubted that “X Æ A-12” could really be the baby’s name. In California, where Musk’s Tesla headquarters is, names must contain characters from the English alphabet to be legal. Hyphens and apostrophes are allowed, but not accents.
Grimes and Musk appear to have addressed that issue.
Musk announced the news of his new son, born May 4, on Twitter and later shared a picture of him holding the little guy.
Speculation swirled around the meaning of the baby’s unique name. Grimes stepped in a day later to explain: X is the the “unknown variable.” Æ is her “elven spelling of AI.” A-12 is the “precursor to SR-17” — later corrected by Musk to SR-71, apparently the couple’s favorite aircraft.