Elon Musk: New Baby Sparks Social Media Meme Outburst
By now, we have all heard of Elon Musk and Grimes’ new baby, X Æ A-12…and well, how it may or may not be code for a spy plane or Neon Genesis Evangelion. The strange name raises more questions than it answers, and I have the biggest of them all. Do we really think that is the baby’s actual name?
In a postmodern world, with all sorts of absurdly named children, especially of the celebrity couple variety, it could be true. However, I’m willing to go out on a limb, and suggest it could be a prank.
Not the whole birth of course, surely Musk and Grimes are an adorable couple, and the baby represents their particularly successful union. Just the name, X Æ A-12 Musk.
https://twitter.com/angiesey02/status/1257767572814073858?s=20
First off, nobody knows how to say it, obviously, since it incorporates a bizarre string of uncommon characters. I can count on exactly no fingers how many people I personally know with a two-digit number in their first name. Not to mention the “Æ,” which is a ligature only found in a handful of Nordic languages, like Icelandic and Faroese. It sounds like the Swedish ä, or a flat English a, like in hat.
Now, let’s not forget this birth, however nice it may be, came during a particularly shenanigan filled week for Musk. Hours before the birth he was tweeting such goofy nonsense, that it erased billions from Tesla’s market cap. In other words, the tone set was a comedic one.
Lastly, I want to just explore the possibility that the Æ, which isn’t on most keyboards, isn’t exactly viable to put on a birth certificate. Let alone California law, which doesn’t allow for numbers or characters in babies’ names (how archaic). Could you imagine the confusion at any bureaucratic office, where an employee asks for your name? What would you say, “the baby formally known as X Æ A-12?”
There is only so much one can pick this apart, and of course, the internet has exceeded that threshold. All I can say, before resting my case, is that when initially writing about X Æ A-12’s birth, I skipped over Elon’s name tweet, assuming it was a joke.
What do you all think? Is this the newest amazing thing out of Our Great Leader’s gigantic mind? Or another quirky moment in a string of silly mischief?