Grimes & Elon Musk Changed Their Baby's Name — Kinda

It seems a California law may have thrown a wrench into one famous couple's baby name plans. Grimes and Elon Musk changed their baby's name, likely as a result of a state law that prohibits numbers in legal names. But if you're hoping the couple replaced X Æ A-12 with something a little more pronounceable, you'll likely be disappointed. ("John Musk" just doesn't sound right, to be fair.)

So what's the new name on the birth certificate? Grimes revealed Sunday that she and Musk renamed their first born child... X Æ Aii.

Canadian singer Grimes confirmed the name change Sunday via her Instagram, telling one follower who'd asked if she'd been forced to change the child's name as a result of California law that the baby's new name was X Æ A-Xii. On Sunday, Grimes refrained from confirming that the baby's name change had been a result of state law. Instead, she merely noted they'd opted to replace A-12 with Roman numerals. "Looks better tbh," she commented. (In a separate comment, she noted that the dash within the child's initial name would have been allowed as "one dash is allowed" by law.)

So we don't know for sure if the name change was made for legal reasons, but assuming it was, how is the new name more legal than the first? They're not all that different. Apparently, it's all about those aforementioned Roman numerals (which are actually just regular old alphabet letters).

"A name like 'X Æ A-12' would not be allowed," Matt Conens of the Office of Public Affairs of the California Department of Public Health told USA Today. "Vital records must be completed with the 26 alphabetical characters of the English language and appropriate punctuation such as hyphens, apostrophes, periods, and commas."

While state law may have forced Grimes and Musk to alter their newborn's name just slightly, it seems unlikely that the switch to Roman numerals will impact how the name is pronounced.

It's worth noting that Grimes and Musk seem to have different ways of pronouncing their newborn's name. In an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk said the child's unique name was pronounced "X-Ash-A-12." However, Grimes told her Instagram followers that the name was pronounced "X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I."

Musk has previously credited the child's unique name to Grimes, telling Rogan that the singer was the one who "mostly" came up with the name. "A-12 is my contribution," Musk clarified before adding that Grimes was "great at names."