X Æ A-Xii: How to pronounce the name of Elon Musk and Grimes’ son

Elon Musk and his girlfriend Grimes announced the birth of their baby boy in May 2020.

Tesla’s billionaire CEO replied to one of his Twitter followers that Grimes was in labor.

“A few hours away!” Musk tweetedlater add to: “Mom and baby, all good.”

When asked to reveal his son Musk’s name tweeted: “X Æ A-12 Musk.”

At first, it wasn’t clear if Musk was joking or cryptic with the name. It later turned out that he was serious.

After the name was announced, there was speculation that it might be against the law in California, where the couple lives, since the state constitution restricts names to using the 26 alphabetic characters of the English language.

Grimes then confirmed they had changed the name to “X Æ A-Xii”, adding: “Roman numerals. Honestly looks better.”

Meaning

Grimes explained the meaning of the name, saying “X” stands for “the unknown variable”. “Æ” is now the elven spelling of KI, which is an abbreviation for artificial intelligence and the word for “love” in several languages, such as Japanese.

“A-12 = forerunner of the SR-17 (our favorite plane). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in combat but non-violent,” she added. The “A” in the name also stands for “Archangel,” the title of a song by Burial that she previously described as her favorite song.

Pronunciation

Grimes and Musk seem to have different ideas about how to pronounce the name. “It’s just X, like the letter X. Then KI. Like you said the letter A and then I,” Grimes said.

Musk, meanwhile, told podcast host Joe Rogan, “I mean, it’s just X, the letter X. And then the Æ is sort of pronounced ‘Ash’ … and then A-12, A-12 is my contribution,” he said.