X Æ A-12: How to pronounce the name of Elon Musk’s baby [video]

SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Canadian singer Grimes welcomed their first child, a boy on 5 May 2020. The news was initially shared on social media when Musk confirmed that “mom and baby all good”.

Amid all congratulations and well wishes, several fans had pertinent questions. Such as the baby’s name. When asked, Musk simply responded:

“X Æ A-12 Musk”

X Æ A-12 pronunciation confirmed

Update 8 May 2020: We finally have confirmation on how to pronounce Baby Musk’s name! Grimes responded to the question on Instagram and explained: “It’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I”.

Musk, however, went on a podcast and said Grimes came up with the name – “Yeah, she’s great at names” – and explained what his contribution was:

“I mean it’s just X, the letter X. And then, the Æ is, like, pronounced ‘Ash’, and then, A-12. A-12 is my contribution.”

A-12 was taken from the Archangel 12 the precursor to the SR-71, which Musk describes as the “coolest plane ever.” Grimes said on Twitter that it’s their “favourite aircraft”. She added:

“X, the unknown variable, Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love and/or Artificial intelligence), A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favourite aircraft). No weapons, no defences, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent + (A=Archangel, my favourite song) and [sword emoji; rat emoji] metal rat.”

Watch: Musk explaining X Æ A-12

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Baby X Æ A-12 Musk

As expected, the internet lost its collective mind trying to crack the code. There was some fun to be had, too. One user said it’s all “fun and games until demons come out of the floor when you say its name”.

While one user guessed that it’s pronounced “Albin”, another added it’s “actually pronounced ‘effective.'”. We’re not sure about that, but this tweet caught our attention:

pronounced X̶̯̩̗̜̳̭͇͔͈̦͍̻̟̰͚̯̜̠̦̃͛̉̋̀̔̓͑̂̆̀̎̂̚̕ͅ ̶̞̱͚̹̩̙̙͕͎̰̬͖̒͗̇̽̅̃͗̇̍̏͐̈͌̐̈́̒̂͑̒͜͠͝Æ̵͕̻̪͕̀̽͑̈́̉͘A̷̡̬̲̩̞̓̿̊̊̾͂́̈͊͆̐̈́̒̐̇̊̿-̶̮͎̥͇͚̟̣̰͎̜͇̼̖͎̖͕̀̍̌̾͊̉̓͐̐̌ͅ1̸̢̥̰̥̬̝̘̬̲̰̳̤̉̿̓̾͊̈́͠ͅͅ2̵̧̢̛̞̳͚̩̰̬͍̱͉͓̻̓̌̀̈́̒̈́̈́̄̄͒͆͛͗̕͜͝͝ ̵͔̝̩̰͎̜͈̥̝̝̘̟͎͔͔̯̂̃̍̆̽̊͗̓́̑͛̍͆̅̊͘͠

— kerplunk (@ellisunderscore) May 5, 2020

Grimes has not yet posted about the baby’s birth, but we assume she had some say in the matter. A song from her 2019 album Miss Anthropocene is titled, 4ÆM.

Ash, Archangel or Sasha

Let’s say Musk was really leaving cryptic clues about the baby’s name, and not just trolling the world like he has been doing the last couple of days, the baby’s name could be Ash.

The ligature Æ is “Ash”. However, one netizen pointed out that the X combined with Æ could be “Sasha”. While Sasha Musk has a nice ring to it, there’s still the matter of A-12.

A quick Google search revealed that the Lockheed A-12 was a recon aircraft part of the Archangel internal design effort, which lead some netizens to believe that the baby’s name is X Ash Archangel Musk. A bit of a stretch on that one, we know.

X Ash Archangel? pic.twitter.com/cRhNptBiU7

— Viv ? (@flcnhvy) May 5, 2020

We could take the theories one step further and add Ra, Zeus or perhaps the boy is named after a constellation, based on the song lyrics of Grimes’ song, 4ÆM. Hey, it’s worth a shot.

One netizen said “it’s pronounced Musk because the X Æ A-12 is silent”, while another wanted to know “if it’s like Xavier?” Might have been on to something if Musk didn’t already have a son named Xavier. A few other suggestions include:

Musk, who was born in South Africa and is one of the world’s most powerful and richest men, has five sons – Damian, Griffin, Xavier, Saxon and Kai – with his first wife, Justine Wilson.