How To Say X Æ A-12: Elon Musk Clarifies Pronunciation Of Son's Name

When Elon Musk and Grimes welcomed their son X Æ A-12 into the world on Monday, a lot of their fans offered their congratulations to the couple. A lot of people also wondered: How do you pronounce X Æ A-12? Well, there is no need to wonder any longer.

Joe Rogan had the tech entrepreneur on an episode of his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," released on Thursday, and jumped right into asking the question everyone wanted to know.

"How do you say the name? Is it a placeholder?" the 52-year-old podcaster asked.

"First of all, my partner is the one that actually mostly came up with the name," Musk prefaced, adding that "she's great at names."

Musk then broke down the moniker and explained that X is pronounced like the letter and "the AE is like pronounced 'ash.'" He added that A-12 was his "contribution."

The 48-year-old Tesla co-founder further explained that A-12 comes from his admiration of Archangel-12, which was the "precursor to the SR-71," a plane he considers to be the "coolest plane ever."

"The SR-71 came from a CIA program called Archangel... the Archangel project," he elaborated.

Prior to Musk setting the record straight on his newborn son's name, his partner Grimes, born Claire Elise Boucher, offered up the meaning behind the name X Æ A-12 on Twitter.

"X, the unknown variable," the Canadian singer wrote Tuesday. "Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence) A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent + (A=Archangel, my favorite song)(metal rat)."

Noticing the new mother's mix up of referring to the aircraft as "SR-17," Musk replied to the tweet with the correct name, writing, "SR-71, but yes."

"I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit. That was meant to be profound," Grimes quipped in a reply to which Musk simply wrote, "U r a powerful," followed by the princess and angel emojis.

X Æ A-12 is the couple's first child together. Musk has five sons -- Damian, Griffin, Xavier, Saxon, and Kai -- with his ex-wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson.