X

Grimes reveals what her son with Elon Musk calls her. It's not 'mama'

Giving family members unusual names runs in Baby X Æ A-Xii's family.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
grimes
Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

When singer Grimes and billionaire businessman Elon Musk welcomed a son in May of 2020, his name, X Æ A-Xii, made headlines. Baby X is only 16 months old, but he's also making his own way as far as creative naming goes.

His mom says little X refers to her not with any version of "mother," but by her own first name, "Claire." Her birth name is Claire Elise Boucher. The musician chose "Grimes" after a British musical genre, grime music, The Guardian reported.

In a Vogue video showing Grimes getting ready for Monday's Met Gala (yes, the one Nicki Minaj did not attend...), the musician ruminated on motherhood.

"I think, having a baby was a big, kind of like, rebirth for me, artistically," she said. "Being a mother, (it) feels weird to say. For some reason, I don't identify with that word. Which is also really weird because X, he says 'Claire,' but he doesn't say 'mama.' ... Like, maybe he can sense my distaste for the word 'mother.'"

When the baby was born, Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk said that the name is pronounced X Ash A Twelve, and a video showed him referring to his son as "Baby X."