Elon Musk’s Strange Baby Name May Be Illegal

Legal Challenge

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his partner, musician Claire “Grimes” Boucher, announced yesterday that they’d named their newborn “X Æ A-12 Musk” — a name that, well, defies convention.

It’s a name so confoundingly strange, in fact, that experts are saying it could actually go against the law in California, where the couple resides.

“X Æ A-12 isn’t likely to pass legal muster,” Laura Wattenberg, the author of a book about baby names, told Slate.

Name Game

And even if authorities cleared the name for a birth certificate, it’s likely to run into issues with official databases.

“California, like many states, defines names as consisting of letters — specifically the 26 letters of the English alphabet,” Wattenberg told Slate. “It’s not only hard to spell and remember and virtually unpronounceable; it’s not even easily typable and no forms or databases will accept it.”

In other words, Grimes and Musk may have just blessed their own newborn with its own Y2K moment before it even learns how to spell — let alone type — its own name.

Favorite Aircraft

And yes, that is the baby’s actual name, as Boucher confirmed today.

Here’s her confusing explanation: “X” represents an “unknown variable.” “Æ” is Grimes’ “elven spelling of Ai.” “A-12” is allegedly the couple’s “favorite aircraft.”