---
title: "Here’s How You Pronounce the Name Of Elon Musk’s Baby: X Æ A-12"
description: "Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience today, Musk finally gave an answer. X is X, as in the letter. Æ is pronounced \"Ash.\" And A-12 is A-12."
date: "2020-05-07"
modified: "2020-05-07"
authors:
  - name: "Chris Teague"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/chris-teague"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/33351/heres-how-you-pronounce-the-name-of-elon-musks-baby-x-a-12"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
  - "People"
---

# Here’s How You Pronounce the Name Of Elon Musk’s Baby: X Æ A-12

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2020/05/musk-name.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

By now, you've probably heard that singer Grimes just had a baby with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and if you've been anywhere near Twitter in the past 48 hours, you probably [know the kid's name as well](<https://www.twz.com/33317/elon-musk-and-his-partner-grimes-name-their-newborn-after-the-a-12-spy-plane>): X Æ A-12. That's not a typo. Two questions immediately flooded the internet: what does it mean, and how the hell do you actually pronounce it? Wonder know more.

Appearing on [*The Joe Rogan Experience*](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=RcYjXbSJBN8&feature=emb_logo>) today, Musk finally gave an answer. X is X, as in the letter. Æ is pronounced "Ash." And A-12 is A-12. Put it all together and phonetically, you get something like "Ex Ash A-Twelve Musk." So, there you go.

The video below should be cued into the right place—if it loads from the beginning, skip ahead to 0:40 to hear Musk's explanation.

https://youtube.com/embed/RcYjXbSJBN8

As for what it all means, Grimes shed light on that mystery with another tweet. Her explanation was that X is the “unknown variable”, *Æ*is her “elven way of spelling AI” as in artificial intelligence, and A-12 is from the precursor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird supersonic jet. Apparently, that last part came into play because both Musk and Grimes love the A-12 plane for the fact that its only weapon is pure speed.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1257836061520101377

Still unclear is whether the baby's name will be a legal moniker. Some states, [California included](<https://www.buzzfeed.com/tatianatenreyrowhitlock/elon-musk-grimes-baby-name-not-accepted>), have laws against characters that aren’t standard on in the English alphabet. You get the standard 26 letters and apostrophes—that's it. It truly is a big pain to figure out how to type “Æ”, so it’s no wonder state officials don’t want a bunch of people naming their kids as this couple has. [Knowing Musk](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/32191/did-you-know-elon-musk-wrecked-an-uninsured-mclaren-f1>), the baby could end up named something even more bizarre as a middle finger to the system.

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## Author
After working in the technology and software industry for several years, Chris Teague began writing as a way to help people outside of that world understand the sometimes very technical work that goes on behind the scenes. With a lifelong love of all things automotive, he turned his attention to writing new vehicle reviews, detailing industry trends, and breaking news. Along the way, he earned an MBA with a focus on data analysis that has helped him gain a strong understanding of why the auto industry’s biggest companies make the decisions they do.

### Author social links  
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