On Tuesday, Tesla founder Elon Musk and singer Grimes welcomed their first child together.

Lovely news to be celebrated at any point in time, especially in the middle of a pandemic when the rest of the news cycle is rather dire.

The baby is Musk’s seventh (his first child with ex-wife Justine Wilson sadly died of SIDS at 10-weeks-old, and they have five other sons; a set of twins and a set of triplets, together), and Grimes’ first.

Musk confirmed the new arrival when he tweeted that Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, and the baby boy were doing well and shared an image of himself holding his son, prompting his followers to ask the next logical question: What’s the baby’s name?

“X Æ A-12 Musk,” he replied to one.

Yes, it's very confusing. Nobody knows how to pronounce that or even what it... means, but most upsettingly, now I have to come up with a new name for my firstborn goddammit.

Today, an entire, excruciatingly long day later, there has still been no confirmation that this is us being trolled.

So here we are, believing the newest Musk child is named X Æ A-12.

BUT IS HE REALLY? I have no sound reasoning or evidence, but I truly feel like this is something Elon Musk, who once tweeted "Evian, the first bottled water, is naive spelled backwards" (true), would troll us over.

But then again, if any couple were going to name their child X Æ A-12 it would be these two.

Anyway, some internet sleuths have tried to figure out how the name is pronounced, with the most common theory 'X Ash Archangel', based on a tweet Musk liked.

It may look more like an equation than a name, but the character Æ is apparently pronounced 'ash' and A-12 has been used as a code name for a type of plane known as the archangel. I suppose that makes... sense.

Here are some other theories, which I apologise for, as they hurt my brain and are likely to hurt yours too:

According to an article by Slate, the name is unlikely to be legal anyway - at least with that spelling.

California, where it is presumed Grimes gave birth, defines names as consisting of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, so 'X' is the only legal part of 'X Æ A-12', and while it's easier to type (and pronounce), that is still wildly impractical.

Whatever the truth, the announcement has left us with some spectacular memes, and for that, Elon, we thank you.

Feature image: Twitter.