As legend foretold, the ethereal baby of one Elon Musk and Claire Elise Boucher, otherwise known simply as Grimes, came into the world yesterday. Musk, ever so casually, told fans the boy’s name is X Æ A-12. We thought he was fucking with us. We were wrong. Grimes herself has confirmed the name is real. She even explained its meaning. Her son’s name really is X Æ A-12.
All hail our tiny overlord, X Æ A-12.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
There was every chance the name was fake, that Musk was merely fucking with the world. But… I guess not. Two years ago, Grimes announced she was legally changing her name from ‘Claire’ to ‘c‘, “as in the speed of light”, so look, I suppose this makes sense.
I’m not even going to try and explain Grimes’ tweet. I don’t think I can.
Have at it.
•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)— 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020
It’s real. The name is real. X Æ A-12, X Æ A-12, X Æ A-12. I still don’t know how to pronounce it. I think it’s literally just pronounced Ex-Æ (ai)-A-12. Am I right? I don’t know anymore.
Naturally, the name prompted these sort of responses.
you realize this is a human child and not an EP right
— prosperity gospel fka bird world (@mascdonna) May 6, 2020
Are we sure the baby’s actually human though?
Prior to the confirmation, The Child’s name spawned hundreds of theories on Reddit and Twitter. Many though X Æ A-12 was code for something else. The most popular theory was that it translated to X Ash Archangel, which is unique – sure, but it made sense in our heads. We could join the dots, you know? X Æ A-12 is simply otherworldly.
For the fun of it, here’s what people came up with.
X
“X” could’ve been a placeholder for a name the parents had yet to choose or officially announce. Or, if the baby’s name was simply X, Musk could gift him his X.com domain to do with what he pleases. He might do that anyway, who knows. The website, seemingly inactive, consists of a blank white page with an “x” in the top left corner.
Or, people interpreted “X” as the Roman Numeral for 10. Ten? Ten? Or the 10th letter in the alphabet, as in “J”. I’m spiralling.
Æ
Plugging “Æ” into Google tells you that Æ is a ligature for ash. According to the Dictionary.com definition: “the ash, an early English ligature representing a vowel sound like that of a in modern bad.” So it’s not pronounced as “ash”, but people genuinely thought that was the intended pronunciation.
Other people made connections to Grimes’ song ‘4ÆM’. The artist debuted the tune late last year.
A-12
A-12 spoke for itself here, and at least we got this bit right… sort of. Google it and the #1 search result is the CIA’s Lockheed A-12 aircraft. Its internal code name is Archangel. One fan guessed the baby’s name as X Ash Archangel on Twitter, and Musk liked it so we all thought the baby’s name was X Ash Archangel.
X Ash Archangel? pic.twitter.com/cRhNptBiU7
— Viv ???? (@flcnhvy) May 5, 2020
We tried.
Imagine spending all that time researching symbols and letters and meanings, thinking you’re onto something and then finding out that no, X Æ A-12’s name really is just X Æ A-12.
