Grimes And Elon Musk Had To Change Their Baby Name For A Legal Reason

Well, we can only file this news about Grimes and Elon Musk's baby name in a special category called "Definitely Saw That One Coming." ICYMI: Musk and Grimes welcomed their first son together in May 2020 and the SpaceX CEO announced on Twitter that they were naming him, X Æ A-12 Musk. While it might have seemed like a joke from the tech mogul, it turned out he was serious.

Now, people name their babies all sorts of strange things, especially celebs. In fact, sometimes it seems like the wealthier a celeb is, the more obscure the name. Who can forget when Gwyneth Paltrow, who actually commented on the randomness of Musk's kid's name, naming her daughter Apple? Or the fact that all of Kim Kardashian's kids just have random nouns for monikers? Given that Musk is one of the richest men in the world, it definitely tracks that he would just name his kid some sort of mathematical formula. 

However, given the laws in California, the billionaire and the singer may have to rethink what they want to call their son. 

After the internet had its fun with Grimes and Elon Musk's son's name, the mom stepped in to explain the significance of the name. The performer tweeted, "•X, the unknown variable [crossed swords emoji] •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 [white heart emoji] + (A=Archangel, my favorite song) ([crossed swords and rat emoji] metal rat)." Musk chimed in to correct his girlfriend of two years, tweeting that it actually referred to an SR-71, not SR-17. 

As previously reported here, Grimes took issue with his correction, writing a day after giving birth, "I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit. That was meant to be profound." Musk replied, "U r a powerful," with a princess emoji. So they did have an explanation behind the oddball name for their son. That meaning might change though, given that they're going to have to change it anyway, per CNN. 

According to the California Department of Public Health Vital Records Handbook, punctuation in names is allowed when necessary, but numbers, pictures, emoji, or any other symbol is totally forbidden. That's why they had to make a change to the new baby's name.

Per CNN, California law mandates that names only, with some exceptions, use the 26 alphabetical characters in the English language and the name of Grimes and Elon Musk's son, X Æ A-12, decidedly breaks that rule. On an Instagram post from Grimes in late May 2020, a fan asked, "Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws ? What is the baby's new name?" Grimes didn't confirm that they changed it because of the laws or what, but she responded that the new name is "X Æ A-Xii" and added in another comment, "Roman numerals. Looks better tbh."

So, it's still going to be really, really hard for his teachers to call on him in class — hopefully they can come up with an easy nickname for him to use. 

In fact, even Musk and Grimes can't agree on how they'll pronounce the name. Per the same CNN report, Grimes instructed fans on Instagram how to pronounce the name, advising, "It's just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I." However, Musk told Joe Rogan on his podcast that there was more to it than that. He said, "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." Basically, the new parents really need to get on the same page.

This is Grimes' first child, but Elon Musk has five other children — twins Griffin and Xavier, and triplets Damian, Saxon, and Kai — from his previous marriage to Justine Musk, his first wife. Musk says that he tries to spend as much time with all of his kids as possible, but that he feels bad sometimes that he can't give them full attention. He said, per Forbes, "Because they don't need constant interaction, except when we're talking directly. I find I can be with them and still be working at the same time."

Hopefully Grimes can step in to help with the new baby, so Musk doesn't have to change diapers while running his SpaceX program.The couple made their first public appearance in May 2018 at the Met Gala and have been dating ever since, per Billboard. Only time will tell if they decide to get married any time soon — but they have enough to figure out at the moment, like how they're going to pronounce their son's name.