Elon Musk Changes His Display Name to “Gorklon Rust”, Sparking Curiosity

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday changed his display name on X to "Gorklon Rust", sparking curiosity. Here's what the name appears to be a mix of.

The name appears to be a blend of several references. “Grok” is the name of the AI chatbot being developed by Musk’s xAI, while “Rust” could be in reference to the Rust programming language, which is reportedly part of xAI’s tech stack.

“Gorklon Rust” is also linked to a meme coin on the Solana blockchain, which is being sold on PumpSwap, Raydium and Meteora, among other platforms.

This isn't the first time Elon Musk has changed his name on X. In February, the 53-year-old Tesla CEO briefly went by Harry Bolz.

A few months earlier, in December, he adopted the name Kekius Maximus. Numerics speculated Kekius Maximus was a mash-up of Pepe the Frog (a popular internet meme) and Maximus Decimus Meridius, the character played by Russel Crowe in Gladiator. At the time, Musk’s profile picture featured an image of Pepe the Frog dressed in golden armour and holding a video game controller.

The name change comes just a day after Elon Musk announced a major overhaul of X’s recommendation algorithm.

On Saturday, Musk revealed that the social media platform will now integrate artificial intelligence to enhance user experience. He said a lightweight version of Grok will be embedded into X’s recommendation system.

“The 𝕏 recommendation algorithm is being replaced with a lightweight version of @Grok, so will soon be dramatically better!” Musk said.

He added: “You should notice some improvement already.”

Musk also responded to a user's concerns around engagement farming and verification impersonation.

“Engagement farming and verification impersonation are some issues affecting the quality of the experience on this platform,” the user said.

To this, Musk replied: “You should be seeing significant improvement there.”