When billionaire businessman Elon Musk revealed the name of his newborn son to the world, the world wasn’t so sure he was serious. According to many of his followers on social media, X Æ A-12 seemed as though it would be more fitting for a password than a baby.
But it now it appears the 48-year-old wasn’t joking around about the unusual moniker. The child's mom, Canadian singer Grimes, has since taken to Twitter to demystify the string of characters and share the true meaning behind their boy’s name.
Grimes (whose real name is Claire Boucher) offered a bullet-point breakdown of each element of the name Tuesday night, complete with sword and heart emoji for emphasis.
First up was the “X,” which Grimes referred to as “the unknown variable." As for “Æ," the 32-year-old chalked it up to her “elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence).”
Then she got around to explaining the “A-12” part of the equation, which isn’t actually an equation at all. The couple picked it in honor of a Lockheed spy plane, which was the 12th design attempt for a project called “Archangel.”
“(It’s a) precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft),” she wrote, presumably referring to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. “No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent.”
She added that the “A” for “Archangel” carried a bonus meaning, since that’s also the name of her favorite song. While Grimes didn’t reveal which artist’s track she was referring to there, given that she followed it up with the words “metal rat,” there’s a good chance she meant the 2015 single from groove metal band, Soulfly.
Grimes and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX have been dating since 2018, the same year they made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala. X Æ A-12 is the first child for the musician. Musk is also father to five other sons from his previous marriage to Justine Musk.