Baby X Æ A-12 — er, how do you say the name, guys?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his girlfriend, Canadian musician Grimes, stunned the world when they announced their baby’s name recently. Their son, who was born on Monday (May 4), has been named X Æ A-12.

Social media platforms were abuzz with reactions and memes about the baby’s  name, more so on Twitter, where people were quite happy to relay their congratulations, although most were in disbelief. However, the one reaction that was common for everyone was that they were utterly confused about how to pronounce it.

Grimes, 32, whose name is Claire Elise Boucher, decided to share the meaning behind her newborn’s name on Twitter, explaining “X, the unknown variable, Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence), A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favourite aircraft),” referring to her and Musk. But even after she explained the reason behind it, many were still curious about how to actually say it.

Responding to a query on the pronunciation of her son’s name via IG, Grimes said: “It’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I.”

Sounds simple enough, right? But add the fact that Musk said something else completely and they have managed to throw the public for a loop.

Musk, 48, was invited to join the podcast of UFC host Joe Rogan, where he explained how he and his girlfriend came up with the name.

Musk explained: “First of all, my partner is the one that, actually, mostly, came up with the name … Yeah, she’s great at names”. When Rogan asked how to say it, Musk shared: “I mean it’s just X, the letter X. And then, the Æ is, like pronounced ‘Ash’ … and then, A-12, A-12 is my contribution.”

While Musk and Grimes seem to be ecstatic over the birth of their son, they might have some legal trouble when it comes to obtaining his birth certificate.

In the Birth Registration Handbook of the California Department of Public Health Vital Records, Page 112 iterates that when it comes to the name, “The form must be completed using the 26 alphabetical characters of the English language with appropriate punctuation, if necessary”. It goes on to say that no pictographs, ideograms, diacritical marks, or extraneous entries are allowed either.

Meanwhile in Singapore, according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, when registering for legal birth certificates, parents of Chinese, Malay or Indian origin are allowed to include the ethnic characters of the names of their children. However,  they must make sure that the ethnic characters they provide can be found in an acknowledged dictionary. Also, Hanyu Pinyin names must have their Chinese ethnic character name placed on the birth certificate as well.

Despite the peculiarity of Musk’s newborn son’s name, when asked by Rogan how he felt about having another child, his first with Grimes but his sixth in total, he said: “Actually I think it’s better being older and having a kid. I appreciate it more. Babies are awesome.”

Although the rest of the world is utterly confused over the name, it seems that the couple has a fondness for AI. An article in cosmopolitan.com featuring Grimes shared how she and Musk started dating. It stated that Musk reached out to Grimes online after she had tweeted about an AI joke that he was planning to tweet himself.

According to the article: “Elon was researching the idea of joking about Rococo Basilisk, and when he saw Grimes had already joked about it, he reached out to her.” The source added: “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.” /TISG