Bengaluru: Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and Canadian musician Grimes welcomed a baby boy Tuesday and announced on Twitter that they’re naming their newborn son X Æ A-12. Musk has pranked people on Twitter before, so for a while, it was unclear whether the name was a joke.
X Æ A-12 Musk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
However, Grimes eventually tweeted an explanation for the name. According to her, the X stands for the unknown variable, Æ (called ‘ash’) is Elven for love and also doubles as artificial intelligence, while A-12 is the parent to the couple’s favourite aircraft belonging to the US airforce. The spacecraft is called Archangel-12, and Grimes explained it’s also the name of her favourite song.
•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 ?ஐ (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020
Grimes is also called ‘c’, the symbol for speed of light. She released an album in 2015 called Art Angels.
The couple met on Twitter when they made the same pun relating to a thought experiment, and Musk reached out to her after he discovered she had tweeted it three years before him.
Members of the public continue to be perplexed about how to pronounce the new baby’s name and guesses abound. However, most users seemed to have settled on an interpretation of X-ash-A-Archangel as Sasha Archangel. The couple has not confirmed how the name is to be pronounced or spelled in English.
California, where they live, mandates that a child’s name can only contain the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
Meanwhile, Twitter exploded with funny reactions to the name and its pronunciation.
Your kid's name must contain at least one lowercase letter, one capital letter and one number.
— GsiuseJ (@jesuisvalery1) May 5, 2020
pronounced X̶̯̩̗̜̳̭͇͔͈̦͍̻̟̰͚̯̜̠̦̃͛̉̋̀̔̓͑̂̆̀̎̂̚̕ͅ ̶̞̱͚̹̩̙̙͕͎̰̬͖̒͗̇̽̅̃͗̇̍̏͐̈͌̐̈́̒̂͑̒͜͠͝Æ̵͕̻̪͕̀̽͑̈́̉͘A̷̡̬̲̩̞̓̿̊̊̾͂́̈͊͆̐̈́̒̐̇̊̿-̶̮͎̥͇͚̟̣̰͎̜͇̼̖͎̖͕̀̍̌̾͊̉̓͐̐̌ͅ1̸̢̥̰̥̬̝̘̬̲̰̳̤̉̿̓̾͊̈́͠ͅͅ2̵̧̢̛̞̳͚̩̰̬͍̱͉͓̻̓̌̀̈́̒̈́̈́̄̄͒͆͛͗̕͜͝͝ ̵͔̝̩̰͎̜͈̥̝̝̘̟͎͔͔̯̂̃̍̆̽̊͗̓́̑͛̍͆̅̊͘͠
— kerplunk (@ellisunderscore) May 5, 2020
f it i’m naming my kid the quadratic formula pic.twitter.com/0J0WtjiQYO
— hai (@senoritasroses) May 6, 2020
for those of u asking how X Æ A-12 is pronounced, it’s pic.twitter.com/o8u4RQINH9
— ??????? ?????? (@MrMichaelSwartz) May 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/milkz/status/1257662637447344128?s=20
https://twitter.com/hjghwaydocare/status/1257675556763635712?s=20
X Æ A-12 get yo ass down here ???♀️ pic.twitter.com/GfkITscEp5
— marcus (@9oxqt2tumi) May 5, 2020
Elon: "X Æ A-12 you're grounded for a month"
X Æ A-12: pic.twitter.com/YFrZ3YKbvr
— Craspar (@Craspar_) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 when grimes and elon exit the room pic.twitter.com/RDKbN8PqCE
— jen✨ (@Jenceno) May 6, 2020
"TALL LATTE FOR X Æ A-13" – Starbucks
— Akshar (@AksharPathak) May 6, 2020
Also read: Elon Musk’s top concern now is SpaceX getting to Mars before he dies