Grimes & Elon Musk Changed Their Baby's Name, But The Memes Are Still Coming

If there’s one thing we can all count on in the saga of Grimes, Elon Musk, and their newborn baby, it’s the memes

Canadian singer Grimes and billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk‘s newborn son has only been on this Earth for a few weeks, and yet, he’s already had a pretty wild time. That’s due, mostly, to his parents trying to give him one of the most bonkers baby names to ever be seen out in the wild: X Æ A-12. Step aside, Breyydens and Slayleighs.

The only hitch in that plan is that California law forbids using anything but the 26 letters of the alphabet in people’s names, which meant the very, um, unique name Grimes and Musk chose wasn’t gonna fly in their home state. It’s probably for the best, considering they couldn’t even agree on what the name meant, and no one on Earth could figure out how you’re supposed to say it out loud. RIP, every substitute teacher in little X Æ A-12’s life.

Now, though, we’ve learned that there’s a pretty simple workaround for that California law: While numbers aren’t allowed as parts of names, you can use Roman numerals instead. And so, this week, Grimes and Musk revealed their son’s newly updated and California-law-compliant name: X Æ A-Xii. Grimes shared the change in an Instagram post when a fan asked in the comments, “Did you change the baby name because of Californian laws? What is the baby’s new name?”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAlmYlknL4E/?utm_source=ig_embed

Grimes replied with the update and seems pleased. She said she thinks the Roman numerals “Looks better tbh.”

And so the internet did what the internet does: It responded to the news by meme-ing the absolute heck out of it. People came with their memes when Grimes and Musk announced their first choice baby name, and they came with the memes this time, when the second-string name had to come off the bench.

Seriously, the memes have rolled in from all corners of the internet ever since the new parents shared their baby name news. And who can blame people? The name may be very quintessentially what you’d expect out of Grimes and Musk, but that sure doesn’t mean all us non-eccentric, non-billionaire, extremely regular folk understand it. Like at all.

Let’s not forget that in its first iteration, not even Grimes had a full handle on the meaning of the kiddo’s unique moniker. Musk publicly corrected her on the type of aircraft they gave a nod to in their son’s name. She had it as “SR-17” but Musk says it’s actually SR-71. Whoopsie.

But hey, when you’re born into some serious money and privilege, your name probably isn’t all that important. The kid is going to have every possible opportunity in life, and that’s what matters in the end.

Now can someone please help us out and teach us how to pronounce X Æ A-Xii? Because we truly have no idea where to even start with that.