Published 16:06 IST, May 7th 2020
X Æ A-12: Elon Musk's unusual name for newborn son may actually be illegal, here's why
Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk welcomed a baby boy with his long-time girlfriend Grimes on May 5 and named him 'X Æ A-12'.
Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk welcomed a baby boy with his long-time girlfriend Grimes on May 5 and named him 'X Æ A-12'. With an 'inked' picture of his newborn baby, Musk shared the name which left netizens flabbergasted. Soon after, Grimes decoded the name for social media users but recent reports suggest that the name could actually be illegal.
The name, which appears to be a series of numbers and signs, has left people confused about the meaning. Ever since Musk revealed the name, netizens have been asking questions like 'how to pronounce' and 'what does it mean.' As per various international media reports, names aren't allowed to have special characters according to Los Angeles laws. Roman numerals, accents, umlauts or other symbols or emojis are also reportedly not permitted while an apostrophe is acceptable in some cases.
Numericals not permitted in names?
Another report by an international media outlet stated that names can only have twenty-six characters of the English language and special characters and numericals aren't permitted. The report added that the couple "won't be able to register" their son's name in California, where the child is believed to have born.
Singer Grimes had tweeted that their son's name, X Æ A-12, was partly inspired by the couple's favourite aircraft. "A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favourite aircraft)," she wrote, but Musk corrected her pointing out that the spy plane is actually called an SR-71. "I'm recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit. That was meant to be profound," Grimes replied to her partner.
This is Grimes' first child, while Musk already has five sons, all from his first wife Justine Musk. Grimes, who dropped her fifth album Miss Anthropocene in February, had then opened up about her pregnancy and described how she feels "woefully ill-prepared." Taking to Instagram, she asked for pregnancy advice and apologised to fans for not promoting her album.
Updated 16:08 IST, May 7th 2020