When Elon Musk and Grimes revealed the name of their newborn son earlier this month – X Æ A-12 – there were a lot of questions surrounding the name. Fans wanted to know how to pronounce it and what it meant, but the biggest question was whether or not the state of California would accept it.

According to Us Weekly, Musk and Grimes had to change baby X Æ A-12’s name slightly to comply with California state laws. The state’s constitution says that names can only use the 26 alphabetic characters of the English language. So, instead of X Æ A-12, their son’s new name is X Æ A-Xii after changing the numeric “12” to the Roman numeral version of the number “Xii.”

Grimes revealed the slight change in the comments section of an Instagram post this past weekend.

“Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws ? What is the baby’s new name?” asked a fan, to which the Canadian singer replied: “X Æ A-Xii. Roman numerals. Looks better tbh.”

When a fan asked if she calls her son “X” or “Æ” – which is pronounced “ash” – the singer said that the baby has “many names.”

The Tesla CEO started dating Grimes in May 2018 and they welcomed X Æ A-Xii on May 4. Explaining the unusual moniker, Grimes said that “X” represents the unknown variable, “Æ” is the “elven spelling of Ai (love and/or Artificial Intelligence),” and the “A-Xii” or the “X-12” is the precursor to SR-71, the couple’s favorite aircraft.

In her explanation, Grimes accidentally wrote “SR-17” instead of “SR-71,” and Musk called her out for it on Twitter. She immediately fired back: “I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b [sic] forgiven but, damnit. That was meant to be profound.”

An insider says that Musk and Grimes have had plenty of “ups and downs in their relationship” and that didn’t stop during the pregnancy. Even though the couple is on and off, they will continue their close friendship.

“Regardless of what happens to them romantically, Elon plans to be a father figure and be involved in the life of his child,” said the source.

Advertisement

X Æ A-Xii is Grimes’ first child. Elon Musk is also the father of a set of twins and a set of triplets with his ex-wife, Justin Wilson.