Couples may not always agree on everything, but they should probably agree on how to say their son’s name. For Grimes and Elon Musk , it seems that’s a challenge, as they are having trouble landing on a common pronunciation for their son X Æ A-12’s unique name.
When a fan asked the singer how she pronounced the name, she offered a concise explanation.
“It’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I,” she wrote in the comments to one of her recent Instagram posts.
Musk, on the other hand, seemed to think that the name had a totally different pronunciation. During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience on Thursday, the Tesla CEO said that the X was “spoken like the letter,” while “the ‘Æ’ is pronounced like ‘ash.’”
Even as he explained the pronunciation, Musk acknowledged that it was Grimes who had done most of the heavy-lifting when it came to naming the boy. The Space X founder did make one key contribution to the name, though.
“A-12 was my contribution. The Archangel-12, the precursor to the SR-71, the coolest plane ever,” Musk explained.
A-12 is a reference to the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, which was built by the CIA during the Cold War.
Even as they try to come to an agreement on how the name is pronounced, it was recently reported that the couple may not legally be allowed to name their son X Æ A-12. According to a source speaking with People , this is because, according to California law, names cannot feature numbers, and should only contain the 26 letters of the alphabet. While this law certainly doesn’t mean they can’t refer to their son by that name, the couple may be unable to put that name on his birth certificate.
When the news of the unconventional name first broke, Grimes took to Twitter to explain how the couple had come up with the parts of the name that are not a reference to old spy planes.
In the tweet, the singer said that X represents “the unknown variable,” and Æ is her elven spelling of “Ai,” which can mean love or artificial intelligence. Grimes continued by explaining that she liked the name in part because she thought it sounded like the name of the protagonist in a grand adventure. The couple has faced some backlash for the unusual name, but she said that she hoped her child would eventually “vibe” with it.
