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According to Screen Rant entertainment website article X-Men: What Did The 'X' Originally Stand For?, the 'X' in X-Men does not stand for Xavier, but for a condensed form of 'the Extra-Power Men', referring to the extra powers that Professor Xavier bestowed on them.

Also, most of us are aware that Stan Lee first titled the comic "The Mutants," but his editor believed the readership would be unable to understand what or who a mutant was, so Lee recommended X-Men because the main characters possessed "extra" abilities and were led by a man named Professor X.

I've looked through the fandom and other legitimate sources, but there is no explicit explanation regarding the meaning of the X in Professor Xavier's identity, which is my question.

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    X stands for Xavier..
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Jun 6 at 17:10
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    i.sstatic.net/IkH1CdWk.png - The X in X-Men canonically stands for eXtra abilities/powers.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 6 at 17:32
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    @user931 - That would make a great answer ... if you can prove it. :-)
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 6 at 17:33
  • I thought that the X referred to the X-gene, at least in reference to X-Men.
    – Donatello Swansino
    Commented Jun 6 at 18:07
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    "The X in X-men has nothing to do with the X in Professor X - which is to get rid of the extra syllables in Xavier and not that I am extra especially 'ex-tra powered'" - Charles Xavier probably.
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Jun 6 at 21:57

1 Answer 1

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The meaning of the term 'X' in X-Men has changed a fair bit over the years. The first mention was The X-Men #1 (1963). 'X' is code for the mutants possessing 'ex-tra' powers.

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In that same issue, Professor Charles Xavier refers to himself as "Professor X", which appears to be short for Xavier. He uses the two interchangeably.

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