By Harrison Mazer:
X Æ A-12. No, that is not some programming code for the new SpaceX rocket, that is the name of Elon Musk and Grimes’ newborn boy. Now I know what you’re thinking: who in the whole Milky Way Galaxy would name their child that? We’ve all seen the memes of Coronavirus related baby names but honestly, KaRona, Phurell, Pan-Demicah, and Sharmina might still be more reasonable than X Æ A-12.
I do believe that if it is your child, you should be able to name it whatever you want. Although, there is one problem: they cannot agree on how it should be pronounced. If you cannot pronounce your child’s name, then maybe it doesn’t make sense to use that name.
Elon has been married three times, most recently to Canadian singer Grimes. This is Elon’s seventh child and his other children do not have a history of bizarre names. The names Nevada, Damian, Griffin, Xavier, Saxon, and Kai might seem unusual to some people, but nothing compares to X Æ A-12.
I’ve been researching how to pronounce it and there are two ways. According to Grimes, the “X” is just pronounced “X” and “Æ” is the Elven spelling of artificial intelligence, which is pronounced “A.I.” According to Elon, it is pronounced “X” then the “Æ” is pronounced “ash” and A-12 was a precursor to SR-17, the couple’s favorite aircraft. This is bananas.
I feel bad for this kid. Most kids go through the struggle of substitute teachers pronouncing their names wrong, but this is on a whole new level. The kid literally has numbers in his name. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up changing his name in the future, but if he were to keep it, that would be pretty rad. X Æ A-12 would stand out just by being Elon Musks’ kid, even if he didn’t have that name.
The name could violate a California state rule that stipulates baby names must only use the 26 letters of the English alphabet. But, Elon practically owns outer space, so they might make an exception.