If there's one thing to know about Elon Musk, it's that the billionaire Tesla founder doesn't exactly stick to convention. (But hey, that's probably what's helped him build hugely successful companies, right?) You could say that his partner, the Canadian singer-songwriter Grimes, is cut from the same cloth. The couple haa been raising their first child together with a pretty open mind — right down to what they let the little guy call them.
The couple welcomed their son in May of 2020
As soon as they did, Twitter was buzzing over the name. (And not in a good way.)
Let's just say, if you thought Pilot Inspektor or Apple Martin was strange, this celeb baby name is about to throw you for a LOOP.
In a joint statement, the couple announced that they had named their new baby … drumroll please …
X Æ A-12!
Yep, that's right — X Æ A-12
According to Musk, the unique name isn't pronounced the way you might think it is. As Musk himself clarified last year, it's pronounced in full, "X Ash A Twelve."
In response to a comment on Instagram last year, Grimes later said that she and Musk would be referring to their son by shortened version of his name.
"It's just X, like the letter X," she explained, shortly after her son's birth. "Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I."
The only problem?
California law actually prohibits the use of numbers on birth certificates — so the last part of the baby's formal name was later changed to “A-Xii."
Apparently, the "unique" name was very intentional
During an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Musk later claimed it was Grimes who came up with it.
"First of all, my partner is the one that, actually, mostly, came up with the name," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said. "Yeah, she's great at names."
(Honestly, though, that statement is debatable.)
On Twitter, Grimes later elaborated on the inspiration.
"Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence,” tweeted Grimes. “A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent."
Fast-forward one year, and people are no longer talking about the *baby's* name
Instead, it's kind of the opposite.
In an interview with Vogue, the Canadian singer confessed that her son doesn't actually call her "Mom."
And no, he doesn't call her "Mommy" or "Mama," either.
Instead, he calls her by her first name
No, not Grimes — Claire.
That's right; Grimes's real name is actually Claire Elise Boucher (the whole "Grimes" thing is just a stage name). In other words, her toddler isn't running around the house shouting "GRIMES!" at the top of his lungs, if that's what you were thinking. (Because I definitely was.)
"Being a mother feels weird to say," Grimes told Vogue. "For some reason, I don’t identify with that word. Which is also really weird, because X, he says Claire, but he doesn’t say Mama."
“Maybe he can sense my distaste for the word ‘mother,’” she continued. “Which I don’t even know why I have a distaste for it, because I respect … I just can’t identify with it, weirdly."
Once the story hit social media, people had LOTS of thoughts
More than a few people pointed out that what X chooses to call his mother is really the least of his worries.
"With a 'name' like that he will need therapy," one person tweeted. "There should be laws against [this], that is not a name, it's a serial code."
"What a world we live in … " added someone else.
But not everyone was hating on the story.
At least one other parent on Twitter could see where Grimes is coming from.
"I relate to my embodiment as a female parent, but I can’t even with all the crap that word has come to mean and not mean," they tweeted. "And Mom Culture is just the worst."
The truth is, it really doesn't matter much at the end of the day
After all, there are worse things a kid could call his mom other than her first name, right? And Claire is a pretty sweet name. (Almost as sweet as Grimes's nickname for her kiddo: "Little X.")
