Elon Musk Changes Baby Name from X Æ A-12 to X Æ A-Xii
Credit: Entertainment Tonight
Because that’s so much more sensible.
Earlier in the month, tech entrepreneur and well-known eccentric Elon Musk had his first child with his partner, Claire Elise Boucher, AKA Grimes. Celebrity babies are, of course, always headlining news, but what made this baby especially noteworthy was his name: X Æ A-12. According to Musk, that’s pronounced “X Ash Archangel Twelve.” Sounds like the main robot in a giant robot anime. According to Grimes, the pronunciation is completely different, with the Æ standing for “Ai.” As you may expect, this name rose quite a few eyebrows around the world, with many asking Musk why he’d give his kid such a strange name. Musk, however, didn’t see any problem, telling reporters at the time “it’s great.”
After a month with the name on the record, though, Musk and Grimes have decided their kid’s name needs a little tweaking. The sensible thing would probably be to just shorten it to “Ash” or something, but, well, it’s Elon Musk. Sensible is not at the top of his playbook. Grimes announced on her Instagram that their son’s name had been changed from X Æ A-12 to X Æ A-Xii. Same name, just with Roman numerals instead of alphanumeric numbers. One Instagram user theorized this switch was due to a California law that states kids’ names can only be composed of the 26 letters of the English alphabet (though that would call into question the Æ, I think), but if that was the case, Grimes wasn’t telling. All she said when asked about the switch to Roman numerals was “looks better tbh.”
I’d say that this kid is gonna have a tough time growing up with a name like that but, well, his dad’s Elon Musk. He could be named Ham Sandwich, and he’d probably do fine for himself.
