Grimes and Elon Musk have found themselves in the headlines over the past month or so due to their recently born bundle of joy. Grimes gave birth to her and Musk’s first child together, and they named the boy X Æ A-12. Not long after that name was revealed, some people realized that the atypical name seems to be illegal according to California law, so it remained to be seen if Grimes and Musk would have to make an adjustment. Now it appears they have.
Last night, Grimes posted a photo of herself on Instagram, and somebody asked in the comments, “Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws ? What is the bby’s new name?” Grimes responded, “X Æ A-Xii.”
However, even though the numbers have been removed from the name, it still may not be legally permissible. The “Æ” may have to be changed to “AE” or something else, as family law attorney David Glass recently noted, “In California, you can only use the ’26 characters’ of the English language in your baby name. Thus, you can’t have numbers, Roman numerals, accents, umlauts, or other symbols or emojis.”
As for how to say the name, Grimes and Musk have offered two different explanations. Grimes said earlier this month, “It’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I.” Meanwhile, Musk told Joe Rogan, “So, it’s just X, the letter X, and then the Æ is pronounced ‘Ash.’”