Canadian singer Grimes and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk left fans perplexed earlier this month when they revealed they named their newborn son X AE A-XII.
According to Fox News, the pair was overwhelmed with questions regarding the pronunciation and meaning behind the unconventional moniker, which ended up being slightly changed after his birth.
In an interview with Bloomberg about her upcoming online art exhibition, the singer revealed she calls her newborn ‘Little X.’
The 32-year-old singer opened up on Instagram about the change the couple made to their child’s name on last Sunday, given that it reportedly wouldn’t be accepted legally in the state of California.
The Oblivion crooner told a fan that the couple replaced the number 12 from his name with roman numerals instead. She responded “X AE A-Xii,” without providing further insight concerning the reason behind the switch.
One of her followers responded, “Nice! Just removed the numbers to conform to California law.” Grimes wrote, “Roman numerals. Looks better tbh.”
Previously, family law attorney David Glass told People magazine that while the original name is technically legal, California only accepts the use of the 26 letters in the English alphabet for baby names.
Grimes, whose birth name is Claire Boucher, and the tech entrepreneur welcomed their son on May 4.
According to the outlet, the new mom previously took to Twitter and explained the X represents “the unknown variable” and “AE, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence).”
She also shared that part of the name is a tribute to the CIA’s Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance plane, which has “no weapons, no defences, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent.” As for the “A,” it represents “Archangel,” which is her “favourite song” and the number “12” represented the Chinese zodiac sign of the rat.
But when the 48-year-old multi-billionaire, participated in a recent episode of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast, he said X is spoken “like the letter” while “the ‘AE’ is pronounced like ‘ash.’“
Musk also claimed it was Grimes who “mostly came up with the name.” However, Musk said the A-12 addition was his idea as a nod to the Lockheed A-12. Musk reportedly has five sons from a previous marriage.
