‘Grimes named her child what?’ Shock hoax circulates online claiming Elon Musk’s pregnant girlfriend is planning to name their baby INFLUENZA
Rumours have spread across Twitter claiming that billionaire Elon Musk and Canadian musician Grimes have planned to name their child Influenza.
However, the false claim, which came to light earlier this week, seems to have originated from a fake news site called World Grey News earlier this week.
An article headlined ‘Grimes named her child WHAT’ included a false BBC News logo and even a fake quote from the artist confirming the unborn child’s name.
Influenza Musk: Rumours have spread across Twitter the week claiming that billionaire Elon Musk and Canadian musician Grimes have planned to name their child Influenza (pictured in May 2018)
The hoax rapidly gained traction on social media and was even tweeted by Pop Base – a Twitter account with 24,000 followers that shares pop culture news.
Pop Base tweeted: ‘Grimes and Elon Musk have reportedly named their child Influenza.’ The tweet has been shared nearly 2,400 times and liked by more than 25,000 people.
Twitter users went into a frenzy and started creating memes speculating on what Influenza Musk would be like.
One tickled social media user took to the site to say that the baby would try and contact their home planet after realising they were born on earth.
Wild rumours: The hoax rapidly gained traction on social media and was even tweeted by Pop Base – a Twitter account with 24,000 followers that shares pop culture news
While another shared a picture of a startled cat with the caption: ‘Influenza Musk when someone asks her what her name is.’
However, while the couple haven’t expressly said they will give their unborn child a bizarre name – it isn’t completely out of the picture.
Back in February, Grimes, who is famed for her avant-garde personality and look, revealed that some memes which previously surfaced speculating potential baby names were accurate.
Twitter frenzy: Twitter users went into a frenzy and started creating memes speculating on what Influenza Musk would be like
She told The Face: ‘Annoyingly, some of the memes about my naming ideas are on point.’
Grimes, whose birth name was Claire Boucher, is also no stranger to having a bizarre name herself. In 2018 she changed her legal name to ‘c’.
She told Cultured that she did it in order to erase her public persona. She said: ‘You just have to totally untether your personality from your public persona.
‘I’m like, I don’t want to use that name anymore. I don’t want to use that face anymore. Because it now stands for something that I don’t agree with.’
It is unclear whether or not the couple’s baby has been born yet but Grimes did tweet about having a baby on Tuesday.
She wrote: ‘Having a baby is like the dark souls of tamagotchi.’
Fans instantly replied asking about the baby but the artist didn’t reply. Grimes has allegedly previously revealed that her due date is May 4.
Odd names: However, while the couple haven’t expressly said they will give their unborn child a bizarre name – it isn’t completely out of the picture