Elon Musk and Grimes reveal new name for baby boy after Californian law hurdle

The baby's name has been altered to include Roman numerals instead of numbers
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George Fenwick26 May 2020

Grimes and Elon Musk have changed their baby’s name without explanation, with some theorising it’s due to Californian law.

The celebrity couple initially named their child X Æ A-12, but people began to speculate whether they would be allowed to go ahead with the name, as Californian law only allows baby names to use the 26 letters of the alphabet.

After sharing a new photo on Instagram, a fan asked Grimes if she had changed the baby’s name.

“Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws ? What is the baby’s new name?” wrote the Instagram user.

@elonmusk

Replying to the fan, Grimes revealed the baby’s name is now “X Æ A-Xii”.

She did not mention the Californian law, but later replied to another fan, saying: “Roman numerals. Looks better tbh”.

A California attorney had previously confirmed to People magazine that the couple would not be able to proceed with their initial numbered name.

"In California, you can only use the '26 characters' of the English language in your baby name," David Glass said.

"Thus, you can't have numbers, Roman numerals, accents, umlauts or other symbols or emojis. Although an apostrophe, for a name like 'O'Connor,' is acceptable.

After Musk confirmed the baby’s name on Twitter, Grimes later explained the meaning for confused fans.

"X, the unknown variable," she wrote, "Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence).

"A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent."

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