Dad and robot-car-maker Elon Musk has welcomed a baby with his girlfriend, singer Grimes. These two have quite the cult following online, in large part owing to their interesting life choices.
When they first told the internet that little X Æ A-12 had joined us Earthside, reactions were mixed. Plenty of people were enthusiastic because they like anything Elon does and says, no matter what. You know, the same guy who once said, "I would tell people they will get to see their families a lot when we go bankrupt," in response to an employee's complaint that the job at Tesla was too demanding is a dad once again! So, great!
Anyway.
Elon and Grimes, who is actually named Claire Elise, decided that their little space alien needed a name that would definitely prompt Agents Scully and Mulder to investigate their home. They settled on a truly original moniker and were all set to file the baby's birth certificate when the state of California mercifully intervened.
TMZ has reported that while the pair can call their baby whatever they want, "According to a supervisor at the Department of Public Health Vital Records Office in Los Angeles — where the baby is believed to have been born — it is against California law to include numbers or symbols in a name."
So then People magazine spoke with David Glass, who specializes in family law. He said, "In California, you can only use the ’26 characters’ of the English language in your baby name. Thus, you can’t have numbers, Roman numerals, accents, umlauts or other symbols or emojis. Although an apostrophe, for a name like ‘O’Connor,’ is acceptable."
David also said that Elon and Grimes can put the symbols on the birth certificate, but they'll have to re-submit it. If the certificate is turned in "with the odd numbers, dashes and symbols, it will be submitted and then rejected and they’ll be asked to submit it again. They have an opportunity to appeal the rejection of the birth certificate application but it’s unlikely that it will be granted because, again, California … has been struggling with using symbols."
Californians wanted to change the rule a few years ago, but it didn't work out. "They tried to change the [rule] back in 2014 to allow certain characters, accents or umlauts — those sorts of things — and the bill got dropped because [of the cost] to upgrade their computer systems to allow these accents."
If the parents opt to refuse to change it, they could be creating bigger problems for their child down the road. "I don’t think you can say it’s illegal — it just won’t be accepted. So your child won’t have an official name and won’t have a birth certificate and you can’t get a social security number until you have a birth certificate and on down the line."
Even fans of the two were a little skeptical when Grimes first announced the baby's name. We are all generally quite used to celebrities using original names for their children, but this is next-level work that borders on the truly absurd and possibly pointless.
Also, in keeping with form, Elon had the audacity to correct the way Grimes explained the name online. Because why not? She's only busy recovering from having grown and birthed another human. In a tweet, he responded to the one obvious glaring issue with the name: "SR-71, but yes."
To her credit, Grimes was displeased:
"I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, [expletive]. That was meant to be profound."
It's OK, though! This is the same guy who has wondered if 10 hours a week is "enough" for a girlfriend. He's busy, guys. All those robot cars.
"I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. That's why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That's kind of the minimum? I don't know."
Hopefully, little robot space alien baby will have a delightful childhood spent frolicking and playing at car factories, laboratories, and maybe even in outer space. He joins Elon's five older sons, Damian, Griffin, Xavier, Saxon, and Kai. His first baby, Nevada, died from SIDS 10 weeks after he was born.
