Here's why Elon Musk and Grimes named their new baby X Æ A-12

SA-born billionaire Elon Musk has five sons from a previous marriage — named Griffin, Xavier, Damian, Saxon and Kai. So it was unlikely that he and Canadian singer Grimes were ever going to chose a mundane name, like John or Greg, for their new baby.

The child, who was born on Monday, has been dubbed X Æ A-12 Musk, much to the amusement of the Twitterverse.

“Elon and Grimes gave birth to the password your Wi-Fi company automatically assigns you,” joked one social media user.

“I though people was talking in some kind of code but they talking about [Grime's baby] name,” quipped another.

Though the couple reportedly plan to adopt a gender-neutral parenting style, the SpaceX boss has confirmed on Twitter that the child is a boy. He also shared some snaps of the baby, including a quirky shot where a filter had been used to 'apply tattoos' to the little one's face.

Meanwhile, Grimes took to Twitter to share some insight into the meaning behind her firstborn's unconventional name. Apparently the X is in honour of “the unknown variable”,  Æ is how she'd spell AI — “meaning love and/or artificial intelligence” — in Elvish, and A-12 is a roundabout nod to the couple's favourite aircraft.

While the world now knows why the pair called their bundle of joy X Æ A-12, just how you pronounce this unique moniker is still up for debate — cue the memes!