Elon Musk, Grimes disagree on how to pronounce baby's name

Even Elon Musk and Grimes can’t decide how to pronounce their baby’s name

May 8, 2020 2:27 PM PT

The mystery of how to pronounce baby X Æ A-12 Musk’s name has finally been solved. Well, not quite.

Appearing on Thursday’s podcast episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” new father Elon Musk broke down the perplexing name of his baby boy with Grimes, letter by letter, number by number and symbol by symbol.

For the record:

4:06 p.m. May 8, 2020The couple’s baby was born Monday, not Tuesday as previously stated.

“I mean, it’s just ‘X’ — the letter X — and then the A-E is, like, pronounced ‘ash,’” the Tesla chief executive told Rogan, who couldn’t help but laugh. “And then ‘A-12’ is my contribution ... Archangel 12, the precursor to the SR-71 — coolest plane ever.”

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. On Wednesday, Grimes offered a different interpretation:

“It’s just X, like the letter X,” the Canadian musician replied to a curious commenter on Instagram, echoing her tech mogul boyfriend’s explanation at first. “Then A.I. like how you said the letter A then I.”

The discrepancy could have something to do with the fact that Grimes thinks the middle “Æ” symbol has a dual meaning: “love &/or Artificial intelligence,” according to her tweet explaining how the name came to be.

Either way, we’re still confused.

When in doubt, it’s probably best to go with Grimes’ pronunciation, since the Musk admitted she is “the one who actually mostly came up with the name.”

“She’s great at names,” he added.

For now, we’ll just stick with “X,” for short.

The experimental pop artist and SpaceX founder, who made their relationship red-carpet official at the 2018 Met Gala, welcomed X Æ A-12 on Monday. And the social media buzz surrounding their offspring has hardly died down since Musk unveiled the baffling name and first photos of the infant on Twitter shortly after Grimes gave birth.

X Æ A-12 is Musk’s seventh child and first with Grimes (and her first child).

“I think it’s better being older and having a kid,” Musk said Thursday on Rogan’s podcast. “I appreciate it more. Babies are awesome.”