‘X Æ A-12’, Grimes And Elon Musk’s Baby’s Name, Has Been Meme’d To Mars And Back
"Put X Æ A-12 name into the PlayStation store and they gave me $50 credit"
Grimes and Elon Musk’s baby is here, and it’s called X Æ A-12. This, of course, has spawned many reactions, because it is an incredibly cruel name, akin to naming a child ‘Facebook’, ‘Adolf’ or ‘Warehouse’.
Yesterday, shortly after Grimes (aka Claire Boucher, aka ‘c‘, the symbol for the speed of light) gave birth to their child — her first and Musk’s sixth — the Tesla and Space X technocrat tweeted out the baby’s name when asked by a fan.
This sent the internet into a tail-spin, and we were all a little uncertain whether Musk (a permanent troller and financial edge-lord who wants to open the US up again so he can make more money) was joking.
Today, Grimes has tweeted out explaining the name, suggesting not only is it very much real, but the name has a lot of meaning packed in — it stands for the unknown, AI, an aircraft and a song called ‘Archangel’, which might be by Burial. Or, it could be her own song ‘ArtAngel’, but Grimes doesn’t look back fondly on Art Angels, the album it’s from.
•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 ༒꧂ 🍓🐉🎀 小仙女 (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020
Elon Musk and Grimes coming up with their baby name like pic.twitter.com/RdAqT6jBO5
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 5, 2020
Musk, a normal person, ahs corrected his wife’s own tweet about their child’s name, pointing out the aircraft ‘they’ love is ‘SR-71’, not ‘SR-17’. Cool!
might tweet through my partner birthing our child then smugly correct her on a minor detail when she publicly explains that newborn child's name pic.twitter.com/AB9pQDuCkJ
— alex gallagher (@alexgllghr) May 6, 2020
Okay, so now that’s out there, we’re all trying to work out how to pronounce it.
The prevailing theory is ‘Sasha Archangel Musk’, as a poster on the Elon Musk sub-Reddit speculated that “the name for the ligature Æ is “ash”.. so in the name, it may be pronounced that way… and the Lockheed A-12 was part of the Archangel internal design effort” (via The Standard).
There are, of course, some other theories too.
you’re gunna sit here and tell me that we were supposed to know that X Æ A-12 is pronounced sasha archangel…… pic.twitter.com/GZfhdIO4Ou
— Sarah Salama 🌷🌙 (@_sarahsals) May 6, 2020
x æ a-12 is pronounced “azealia”
— ༺ 𝔊𝔬𝔱𝔥 𝔍𝔞𝔣𝔞𝔯 ༻ (@arabthot) May 6, 2020
i want to make a joke about how dumb of a name X Æ A-12 is but my parents named me viking so
— viking (@notviking) May 6, 2020
Omg I figured out how to pronounce X Æ A-12 pic.twitter.com/ppfE0x8Nfh
— Ben Yahr (@benyahr) May 5, 2020
grimes’s friend from highschool meets X Æ A-12 for the first time :3 #grimes #elonmuskbaby pic.twitter.com/bxb2xJS7PD
— spencer (@playedbygod) May 6, 2020
Others are imagining what X Æ A-12’s life will be like as Musk and Grimes as their parents (for the record, Grimes has stated she is letting the baby decide its own gender later in life, and will be raised gender neutral before). Enjoy the prophecising below.
Grimes’ last album, Miss Anthropocene, was released in February, and was wonderful — if you ignore everything Boucher has said about it. It also features a song called ‘4 ÆM’.
the only test X Æ A-12 won’t be able to pass pic.twitter.com/hEEclMV1ZV
— Nadia (@nadia_hyd) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 arriving to his first day of school: pic.twitter.com/9t1T0XpLZl
— 𝕟𝕠𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕤🐝 (@YungBoiNoctis) May 6, 2020
grimes: X Æ A-12 clean your room!
the room: pic.twitter.com/taSSgVH4JL— ♡ (@NE0SANA) May 6, 2020
"come along X Æ A-12!"
"are you talking to me?"
"no, my son's name is also X Æ A-12." pic.twitter.com/3EMOjKibLY— eilish gilligan (@eilishgilligan) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 going to elon musk and grimes bedroom at 3 am to tell them he threw up pic.twitter.com/3pA1eE7fEe
— 𝔩í𝔩i (@peixoxoxo) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12: howd u know who i am??
also X Æ A-12: pic.twitter.com/PwHB1b3NhN— gorilla (@dialupcommunism) May 6, 2020
teacher: i’m not even gonna try to pronounce this one
X Æ A-12: present pic.twitter.com/pX4ZfFRGqJ
— esolent (@esoIent) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12: 01101001 00011001 01101101 00100000 01100100001
0001110101000?Mom: No, we have water at home!
water at home : pic.twitter.com/AA2YDlcYA5
— old pop🤳 (@istirahatsiang) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12: Guys I can beatbox
His friends: Aight let us hear it
X Æ A-12: pic.twitter.com/j2YQYRuZn5
— Space Warrior #ThankYouAniPoke (@SaiyaPeepul) May 6, 2020
Put X Æ A-12 name into the PlayStation store and they gave me $50 credit
— incognito user (@CrypticNo) May 6, 2020
me writing a computer program to appear in X Æ A-12 Musk’s dreams to convince him to send me money via venmo pic.twitter.com/F5yq7QiBea
— tz (@bonelessfeet) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 Once they get their license pic.twitter.com/9SFNgtb5or
— Whats shakin (@AllStarBacon) May 6, 2020
Grimes blogging about X Æ A-12 pic.twitter.com/RvhHyXe59o
— bæ J (@AJ_Jeremiah) May 6, 2020
Elon Musk and Grimes’ first birthday party for their child X Æ A-12:pic.twitter.com/cb4cN97WPH
— ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss (@prominentbabee) May 6, 2020
No I think it should be spelled like this – X̶̯̩̗̜̳̭͇͔͈̦͍̻̟̰͚̯̜̠̦̃͛̉̋̀̔̓͑̂̆̀̎̂̚̕ͅ ̶̞̱͚̹̩̙̙͕͎̰̬͖̒͗̇̽̅̃͗̇̍̏͐̈͌̐̈́̒̂͑̒͜͠͝Æ̵͕̻̪͕̀̽͑̈́̉͘A̷̡̬̲̩̞̓̿̊̊̾͂́̈͊͆̐̈́̒̐̇̊̿-̶̮͎̥͇͚̟̣̰͎̜͇̼̖͎̖͕̀̍̌̾͊̉̓͐̐̌ͅ1̸̢̥̰̥̬̝̘̬̲̰̳̤̉̿̓̾͊̈́͠ͅͅ2̵̧̢̛̞̳͚̩̰̬͍̱͉͓̻̓̌̀̈́̒̈́̈́̄̄͒͆͛͗̕͜͝͝ ̵͔̝̩̰͎̜͈̥̝̝̘̟͎͔͔̯̂̃̍̆̽̊͗̓́̑͛̍͆̅̊͘͠
— Hrithik Mishra (@Hrithik58085702) May 5, 2020
grimes: elon, X Æ A-12 is acting up again
elon: hold up, lemme give him a software update
pic.twitter.com/W7gpyoVgVS— ♏︎ (@vxxxdhxxx) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 after trying McDonald’s Sprite for the first time pic.twitter.com/3FzntBaitJ
— Matthew Joy (@matthewjoy23) May 6, 2020
elon and grimes: X Æ A-12! come downstairs its time for dinner!
X Æ A-12's dinner: pic.twitter.com/yLg6E7LKGd
— DitzyFlama (@DitzyFlama) May 6, 2020
X Æ A-12 when grimes and elon exit the room pic.twitter.com/RDKbN8PqCE
— jen✨ (@Jenceno) May 6, 2020
elon and grimes be like X Æ A-12 come downstairs your pb&j is ready pic.twitter.com/RXQ8tQeFr8
— Beans After Dark (@goodbeanalt) May 6, 2020
Husband. Dad to X Æ A-12 and Baylee. Christ follower. Occasional snark. Rants about politics and baseball found here
— JP (@jpbrammer) May 6, 2020
the worst part of X Æ A-12 Musk's name is still "Musk"
— 🌺💿 Lonelyspeck 💿🌺 (@lonelyspeck) May 6, 2020