Elon Musk and singer Grimes welcomed a son on Monday, but the world questioned over the baby's name. Musk said it was "X Æ A-12." But, it wasn't until Thursday, while the Tesla and SpaceX founder appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, that he explained the name's pronunciation. The first thing the pair discussed was Musk's new child son, with Rogan asking a way to pronounce the boy's name.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019.
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Is it a placeholder?
Apparently, the call is not a placeholder, Musk told Rogan. Musk says the name is pronounced "X Ash A 12," quite much as it looks. "Æ" is a character used in a few languages, including Danish and Norwegian. The figure is frequently pronounced "ash," but a few people pronounce each letter, saying "AE." "The X is just "X" and the A-12 is just "A 12," Musk said.
Musk went into a bit of backstory on the choice, mentioning Grimes "mostly came up with the name." He explained A-12 was based on Archangel-12 - the precursor of their favorite aircraft: SR-71.
Musk also said the child was born on May 4, commonly referred to as Star Wars Day for the saying "May the Fourth (Force) be with you."
If you need to hear Musk say it, you don't need to fast-forward through most of the video. Rogan asks him to pronounce it merely 37 seconds into the podcast.
Grimes herself tweeted out a more detailed explanation of why the unique name parts were chosen. She said X "the unknown variable." She added Æ was "my elven spelling of AI," which she explained as "love and/or artificial intelligence."
As for the A-12, she called the plane "our favorite aircraft," happening to tout its "no weapons, no defenses, simply speed. Great in battle, but non-violent."
Grimes added the A in A-12 stood for "Archangel," which she said was "my favorite song." A few music sites are guessing she could mean the music by the band Burial. Grimes once stated Burial's "Archangel" song as a fave on her Tumblr.
She ended her tweet with the words "metal rat" and emoji of crossed swords and a rat. 2020 is the year of the "metal rat," according to the Chinese zodiac, even though, of course, it could also mean "fan of heavy metal music."
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X Æ A-12's Name May Run Into Some Administrative Issues in California
While the name is definitely unique, to mention the least, it may run into a few administrative issues in California. California's Office of Vital Records only accepts names that include 26 alphabetical letters, as People reports.
Apostrophes, just like "O'Connor" as a last name, are allowed, and it would appear that the hyphen might also make it through. However, the "Æ" might cause the certificate to be rejected, and the parents would rename it again.
"[Y]ou can't have numbers, Roman numerals, accents, umlauts or other symbols or emoji," California family law attorney David Glass told People.
A few years ago, The Guardian wrote an article that provides more explanation of California's strict and strange rules.
