Never far from the headlines, Elon Musk and his partner, Grimes, have acquiesced to California law and renamed their newborn baby boy – though they budged by only the slightest of margins.
Musk-ovites have been enthralled by the child’s name, X Æ A-12 (pronounced ‘Ex Ash A Twelve’), since he was born on May 4. It wasn’t until Musk’s recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that the internet was put out of its collective misery about the actual pronunciation and meaning of the name.
However, it quickly emerged that the pair would be forced to change the baby’s name to comply with California law.
‘X Æ A-12’ shall henceforth be known as… ‘X Æ A-Xii.’
Apparently, California law prohibits Indo-Arabic numerals in names, but does allow for Roman numerals, as well as any relevant apostrophes and, in this case, dashes.
The baby’s mother revealed the subtle name change in Instagram comments, replying to a user who asked, “Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws? What is the baby’s new name?”
“X Æ A-Xii,” Grimes replied on Sunday, adding “Roman numerals. Looks better tbh.”
Fans gushed over the couple’s ingenuity in circumventing the law. “Roman numerals…brilliant!” wrote one user. “Almost a palindrome,” added another.
“@grimes girl…. why u like this,” one bemused fan said. Grimes, aka Claire Elise Boucher, had previously explained the meaning of the name on Twitter.
•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)
The child is Grimes’s first, but Musk’s seventh. His other children do not bear the burden of an unwieldy name, however – Nevada, Damian, Saxon, Griffin, Xavier and Kai are the result of Musk’s marriage to his first wife, Justine, from 2000 to 2008.
This is not the first and only instance of Musk and his associates clashing with Californian law – he recently had a legal stand-off with the state of California after he was prevented from reopening his Tesla plant. After the entrepreneur threatened to move his operations to Texas, it wasn’t long before the authorities backed down.
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