Explain it to me quickly: did Elon Musk and Grimes really name their baby X AE A-12?
What is “X AE A-12”, and why is it trending on Twitter? That, my friend, is the name of tech billionaire Elon Musk and musician Grimes’ first child together. At least according to Elon Musk, who tweeted “X AE A-12 Musk” when one of his 33.7 million followers demanded to know his newborn baby’s name.
Is this … real? Or is he trolling? Probably both, in a sense. Most people are working under the assumption that Musk’s tweet is a code for the baby’s real name. The fact Grimes’ has a track on her latest album, Miss Anthropocene, named ‘4 AE M’; as in “for AE
Musk”, lends weight to the theory.
Then Grimes stepped in to clear things up with a brand new cypher that explained AE stands for AI and X stands for ‘X’.
Glad we’re all on the same page then. But seriously, what does it say on the birth certificate?
There are several working theories on how to pronounce ‘X AE A-12 Musk’ and what it might mean at the moment.
What we do know is that the Lockheed A-12 fighter jet’s original code name was ‘Archangel’ – which is pretty on brand for both Musk (who likes aircrafts so much he’s building a space program) and Grimes (who uses plenty of biblical references in her work). As for the ‘X’; one follower guessed ‘Xavier’ which is unlikely, given Musk already has a son named Xavier; Neal, Alexander and Sasha are also popular guesses. As is straight up ‘X’. There was speculation that AE referred to the ligature Ash. But now Grimes has stepped in to clear things up, it’s possible the baby is really named Xai Archangel Musk. Or, you know X AE A-12 Musk. As for the “metal rat” bit – a Chinese Zodiac calendar makes that line a little less weird than it originally sounds.
Why are people so fascinated with this couple?The pair both had pretty obsessive fan communities going into the relationship – many of whom (mostly Grimes fans) had mixed feelings about them as a couple. Since then there’s been a constant stream of drama about them, including a run in with ubiquitous beefer Azealia Banks, a lot of complaints about their mismatched politics (she’s been a Bernie supporter since 2016; he thinks we should “FREE AMERICA NOW”) and, of course, the baby build up.
Grimes announced she was pregnant on Instagram by posting a photoshopped image of herself with a translucent, Space Odyssey-esque fetus inside her, and at the time no one was sure if it was a record teaser or an actual declaration that she was with child.
Later she confirmed the news with a more confessional, conventional post,