Elon Musk has had 14 children with four different women, and to say his selection of names is creative is an understatement.
The following are the highlights of Elon Musk and his wives’ naming careers.
Seldon Lycurgus
A reference to Hari Seldon, a character from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series who can predict the future with mathematical probabilities, and the ancient Spartan lawmaker Lycurgus who is associated with discipline and order, this name has deep meaning, but a phonetic downfall. The name Lycurgus, while fun to say, also brings up images of curdled milk in my head. Although the name is unique, I do give Musk and Shivon Zilis (his wife at the time) credit, as their child’s look fits the name. Shivon said in an interview that Seldon is, “Built like a juggernaut, with a solid heart of gold.”
Techno Mechanicus
Other than sounding like Optimus Prime’s long lost cousin, Techno Mechanicus, lovingly nicknamed Tau by his parents, is Elon and Grimes’ third child, secretly welcomed into the world in 2022. Little is known about little Techno, other than that Grimes, Elon’s ex, believes that he is “definitely a Vulcan” and “looks like a little Spock”. The origin of the name is unknown, other than being purely badass, but the nickname ‘Tau’ has roots in physics, astronomy, and in the Greek alphabet. Whether Tau is named after the Greek letter T or an unstable subatomic particle, it is hard to imagine that Techno Mechanicus is going to have a normal life.
Exa Dark Sideræl (“Y”)
Exa comes from the supercomputing term exaFLOPS. According to Grimes, Dark is “the unknown. People fear it, but truly, it’s the absence of photons. Dark matter is the beautiful mystery of our universe.” Sideræl (pronounced “sigh-deer-ee-el”) was the more elven spelling of the astronomical term “sidereal”, which Grimes defined as “the true time of the universe, star time, deep space-time, not our relative earth time.”
Since then, though, her daughter’s name has changed. “She’s Y now,” Grimes explained on Twitter, “or ‘Why?’ or just ‘?’ (But the government won’t recognize that).” Apparently, while pregnant, she’d also been trying to fight for the name Odysseus as well, saying that having a little girl named Odysseus was her dream. Alas, Exa Dark Sideræl Musk became the compromise, one Grimes even worried might be “too boring”.
X Æ A-12 (“X Æ A-Xii”, “X”)
Does naming your kid this constitute as child abuse? I’d say so.
Elon Musk proudly announced on Joe Rogan’s podcast that the “A-12” bit was his contribution, while Grimes came up with the rest of the name. The A-12 stands for Archangel 12, a reference to the Lockheed A-12, which Musk described as “the coolest plane ever”. Unfortunately, they had to change their son’s name to X Æ A-Xii, using Roman numerals for the twelve, since California state law forbids number characters from being used in a person’s name.
“X”, explained Grimes on Twitter, stands for “the unknown variable”, while “Æ” is “the elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)”. Despite this, Grimes and Musk disagree on how to pronounce their kid’s name. Grimes’ pronunciation of “Æ” is just the letters “A” and “I”, since the Æ character is just her preferred spelling of A.I. (artificial intelligence). Meanwhile, Musk’s pronunciation is “Ash”, which is the Danish pronunciation of the Æ character and bears no semblance to its meaning. Since this kid will absolutely be bullied in school for his name, it’s a good thing they call him “X” for short.
Arcadia
Taking a break from the neon AI overlord baby names, Elon and Shivon Zilis decided on Arcadia. Associated with paradise, and natural harmony, the name Arcadia is also the domain of Pan the Greek god of the wilderness. It is a forest and his court of dryads, nymphs and other spirits of nature. Weirdly an antithesis to Techno Mechanicus, I believe that this was a poor attempt at making a ‘normal’ name for their kid. While the substitute teachers may not cry after reading this name on the attendance sheet, the name instantly makes this child the most granola person in the world.
