Grimes confirms she and Elon Musk named baby X Æ A-12, reveals meaning

Grimes has shared the reason behind supposedly naming her child ‘X Æ A-12’.

The singer, whose birth name is Claire Boucher, and partner Elon Musk welcomed a son earlier this week and now the new mum has opened up about the baby’s unique name.

The 32-year-old musician confirmed that the couple have chosen to name their baby boy X Æ A-12 via Twitter, before going on to explain the meaning behind the moniker.

“X, the unknown variable,” she tweeted.

“Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence),” Grimes continued, before sharing that a part of her son's name is a nod to the couple’s favourite aircraft. “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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Grimes went on to add that the “A” in the name also represents “Archangel”, which she described as her favourite song.

She concluded the explanatory tweet by revealed that the A-12 was also a nod to the

As for the “metal rat” bit – a Chinese Zodiac calendar explains that 2020 is the Chinese zodiac sign of the rat and metal is the representative element.

The only thing Grimes’ tweet doesn’t explain is how the heck you pronounce the name, although some publications have pointed out that Æ could be pronounced like “Ash”.

Heading to Twitter the 48-year-old CEO announced the happy news of his baby’s arrival on Monday evening: “Mom & baby all good,” he tweeted before going on to share some sweet snapshots of him cradling the newborn.

And it was via Twitter that the new dad first revealed the newborn’s name while responding to a fan asking to share the baby’s name.

At the time no one was quite sure if the tech entrepreneur was serious, but confirmation has now come from Grimes.

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Since announcing she was expecting a baby back in January, Grimes, has been keeping fans updated throughout her pregnancy and in February revealed she had suffered “complications” and felt she was “woefully ill-prepared” to have a baby.

Later that month she told fans on Twitter she will allow her child to choose its own gender.

The singer also opened up about the effect that pregnancy had on her skin.

“I don’t know if everyone has this but when I got knocked up my skin turned super red and is just constantly covered in … stuff.

“Doing make-up is way harder when you’re pregnant for some reason,” Grimes, 31, explained in a new video for Vogue, which details her pregnancy skincare regime.

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And pregnancy had another impact on the musician as she admitted she had been craving cow’s milk despite being vegan.

She told Harper’s Bazaar during a discussion about her favourite foods: “Lately the one pregnancy craving I have is just a glass of milk, which is so weird because I haven’t had a glass of milk in probably 20 years.”

Musk and Grimes have been dating for more than two years and made their red carpet debut as a couple at the 2018 Met Gala, but Grimes admitted she was not prepared for the attention surrounding their relationship.

“No one believes me about this, but I just did not understand what I was getting into at all,” she said. “Not that I'm mad about it. I just didn't think it would be a thing.”

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