Grimes reveals meaning behind name of her and Elon Musk’s new gender-neutral baby X Æ A-12
Grimes and Elon Musk welcomed baby X Æ A-Xii on May 5. (Twitter/Getty)
UPDATE (May 26): Grimes and Elon Musk have changed the spelling of their baby’s name, reportedly to comply with Californian regulations.
Grimes explained the meaning of her and Elon Musk’s baby’s name, X Æ A-12, which she said is inspired by their favourite aircraft and artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk announced to the world that his and Grimes’ baby had arrived on Tuesday (May 5), revealing their name to be X Æ A-12 Musk.
After 24 hours of confusion among humans, the singer took to Twitter to give a succinct explanation of the unusual moniker.
“X, the unknown variable,” Grimes explained.
“Æ, my elven spelling of AI (love and/or artificial intelligence).”
The final part of Grimes and Elon Musk’s baby’s name, A-12, is a reference to the couple’s favourite aircraft, the CIA’s Lockheed A-12, codenamed Archangel.
“No weapons, no defences, just speed,” Grimes wrote. “Great in battle, but non-violent.”
She also said that Archangel is also her favourite song, and added cross sword and rat emojis – a reference to the baby’s Chiense Zodiac sign, metal rat.
•X, the unknown variable ⚔️
•Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)
•A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent ?
+
(A=Archangel, my favorite song)
(⚔️? metal rat)
— ꧁ ༒ Gℜiꪔ⃕es ༒꧂ ??? 小仙女 (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020
Archangel-12 pic.twitter.com/s9g69SU1Ju
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2020
Musk added that he used to fly old Russian fighter jets for fun, “but stopped doing physically risky things” after he became a father.
Yeah, but stopped doing physically risky things after the kids were born
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2020
Baby X Æ A-12 is Grimes’ first child and Musk’s seventh. He had six sons with his first wife Justine Musk, the first of which, Nevada, died at 10 weeks old.
Grimes and Elon Musk’s baby name confuses humans.
Grimes and Elon Musk’s baby name sparked fierce discussion after it was announced, including this truly astonishing exchange.
you realize this is a human child and not an EP right
— prosperity gospel fka bird world (@mascdonna) May 6, 2020
are we even sure it’s a human child
— ⚔️ (@knighltey) May 6, 2020
Give them a couple of years and they”ll upload his mind into an android.
— Flammeseele (@Flammeseele) May 6, 2020
couple of years? who knows if they haven’t done that already
— ⚔️ (@knighltey) May 6, 2020
True, I guess we’ll just have to wait till they release his patch notes.
— Flammeseele (@Flammeseele) May 6, 2020
Can’t wait for X Æ A-12 V2.0
— lexi ? (@uwlexi) May 6, 2020
Grimes and Elon Musk haven’t explained how to pronounce X Æ A-12.
Much of the discussion was based around the pronunciation of the name. The leading theory is that it is sounds like Sasha Archangel, with the Æ ligature representing ‘ash’.
Grimes hinted at her baby name back in February, saying that although she and Musk had decided on a name, she wouldn’t be announcing it at the time “because everyone I’ve told it hates it, and everyone’s gonna make fun of it”.
“But it is, in fact, a genius name and people just don’t appreciate it yet because it’s too avant-garde,” she said.
Grimes has previously said that her child will be allowed to “decide their fate and destiny” in terms of their gender.
She explained: “I don’t want to say the gender of the baby … because I feel like their privacy should be protected.
“I don’t think they can consent to being famous or being in public. And I don’t want to gender them in case that’s not how they feel in their life.
“I don’t know, I just feel like it doesn’t need to be known.”
