Elon Musk Is Trying to Repopulate the Earth
Elon Musk is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; the CEO of Tesla, Inc.; the owner and former CEO of Twitter; the co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and the father of 10—that's right, 10—children. Here is everything we know about the billionaire's brood.
How many kids does Elon Musk have?
Elon Musk is the father of 10 children. Sadly, his first child, son Nevada Alexander Musk, passed away at just 10 weeks old in as a result of SIDS, in 2002. The rest of his kids range in age from 18 months to 19 years old.
Related: Elon Musk Fronts the Bill for Certain Celebs to Keep Their Twitter Verification
Who are Elon Musk's kids?
Elon Musk has been in the news for many reasons in the last few years, from his Twitter takeover to his relationships. One such news item about the billionaire has been the unusual names he’s been bequeathing his youngest children. We can definitely see a progression from average names to… well… you’ll see.
Nevada Alexander Musk
Elon Musk’s firstborn son, Nevada Alexander Musk, was born in 2002. Tragically, young Nevada passed away of SIDS at only 10 weeks old. Nevada’s mother, author Justine Wilson, wrote about the heartbreaking loss in an essay for Marie Claire in 2010.
“Nevada went down for a nap, placed on his back as always, and stopped breathing. By the time the paramedics resuscitated him, he had been deprived of oxygen for so long that he was brain-dead. He spent three days on life support in a hospital in Orange County before we made the decision to take him off it. I held him in my arms when he died."
Musk has remained mostly silent (at least in public) about the loss of his son. However, in an email expressing his sympathy to a father who lost his 18-year-old son in a Tesla crash in 2018, he wrote, “There is nothing worse than losing a child. My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his heartbeat.”
Griffin Musk
Following the devastating loss of their first child, Elon Musk and his then-wife Justine Wilson used IVF to have more children. As a result, Griffin Musk and his twin Vivian were born in April 2004. The twins are now 19.
Wilson wrote about her journey with IVF, which was complicated by her grief over Nevada’s tragic loss. “I buried my feelings ... coping with Nevada's death by making my first visit to an IVF clinic less than two months later. Elon and I planned to get pregnant again as swiftly as possible.”
Vivian Jenna Wilson
Vivian Jenna Wilson was born alongside her twin, Griffin, in April 2004. In 2022, at the age of 18, she filed to legally change her name and gender, seeking recognition of her gender as female and the issuance of a new birth certificate reflecting both of these changes. She sought to change her last name to that of her mother’s, leaving behind her father’s surname.
In the petition, Vivian explained her reasoning, including her desire to drop her father’s last name, writing, “Gender Identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."
Musk has given his own explanation for why he believes Vivian has fallen out with him, attributing the takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists. "It's full-on communism...and a general sentiment that if you're rich, you're evil. It [the relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all the others [children]. Can't win them all."
Kai, Saxon and Damian Musk
Elon Musk’s then-wife Canadian author Justine Wilson gave birth to triplet sons Kai, Saxon and Damian Musk in January 2006. The triplets turned 17 this year. Both Wilson and Elon have declined to speak publicly about the triplets at any great length, though Wilson did confirm the trio was also conceived via IVF in a 2017 TedTalk.
Elon and Wilson, his first wife and the mother of his first six kids, divorced in 2008. In a 2010 op-ed for Business Insider, Elon wrote that he paid his ex $20,000 a month in child support in addition to Wilson’s living expenses and the salaries of the children’s nannies.
He explained, “Custody of our five children is split evenly. Almost all of my non-work waking hours are spent with my [children], and they are the love of my life.”
After founding the school Ad Astra in 2014, Elon pulled his children from private school and enrolled them there. Ad Astra, meaning “to the stars” in Latin, began at the SpaceX campus with just 50 students before transitioning to an online school without a grading system, offering courses in artificial intelligence, applied science and coding.
However, Elon has admitted that the majority of his children’s education may have come from another source in a 2021 interview on the Clubhouse app. “Well, my observation is my kids were mostly educated by YouTube and Reddit, and then you know, and their—I guess—classmates. And I guess there were lessons as well, but judging by the amount of time they spent online, it seemed like most of their education is actually coming from online.”
X ? A-Xii (originally X ? A-12)
Elon Musk and on-again-off-again romantic partner Grimes welcomed their first child together on May 4, 2020. Their son was initially named X ? A-12, which was later changed to X ? A-Xii. The name was partially chosen after the CIA’s Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance plane.
However, Grimes, who Elon attributed the name to, gave a different explanation on Twitter, writing,
“?X, the unknown variable ??
??, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)
?A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent ??
+
(A=Archangel, my favorite song)
(???? metal rat).”
Grimes revealed her pregnancy in January 2020 with a photo of her baby bump.
Twins born in November 2021
Elon Musk and Neuralink director of operations and special projects Shivon Zilis welcomed twin babies in November 2021. The names and genders of the twins have not been publicly revealed.
However, Musk and Zilis did reportedly file a petition to change the twins’ names to “have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name.” It was approved by an Austin, TX judge in May 2022.
Exa Dark Sider?l Musk
Just a month after welcoming a set of twins with Shivon Zilis, Elon Musk and Grimes welcomed a daughter, Exa Dark Sider?l Musk, born via surrogate in December 2021. The parents nicknamed the child “Y” due to her brother having the nickname “X.”
Related: Elon Musk Reveals His Strange Breakfast Choice: 'I'm Still Alive'
Why does Elon Musk have so many kids?
Elon Musk has been very vocal about the reasoning behind his large number of offspring. He tweeted in July 2022, “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”
He expressed the same sentiments in December 2021 at The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council, where he said there are “not enough people.”
He continued, “I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate. Please look at the numbers—if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words."
Who does Elon Musk have kids with?
Elon Musk has had children with several different women. His first six children were with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson. Wilson has been candid about the marriage, stating, "I was a starter wife" as part of a revealing essay in Marie Claire.
Elon shares two children with his sometime romantic partner, singer Grimes, who gave birth to their son X ? A-Xii in May 2020. They then welcomed a daughter, Exa Dark Sider?l Musk, via surrogate in December 2021.
Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. She has described her relationship with Elon as “fluid.”
Between the birth of his children with Grimes, in November 2021, Elon welcomed a set of twins with Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink director of operations and special projects. Not much is known about their relationship, with the two not even publicly revealing the twins’ names or genders.
Related: From Tesla to Twitter, What We Know About Elon Musk's Net Worth In 2023
How do you say Elon Musk's kids' names?
The pronunciation for the majority of Elon Musk’s children’s names are pretty self-explanatory. However, we would understand if you need some help understanding how to say the names of his children with singer Grimes, X ? A-Xii and Exa Dark Sider?l Musk.
Both Grimes and Elon have given conflicting pronunciation explanations for X ? A-Xii, who is nicknamed “X.”
Grimes tweeted the following explanation, "It's just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I."
However, Elon explained, "X… like the letter… the '?' is pronounced like 'ash.'"
We’d probably stick with calling him “X” too!
According to Grimes, daughter Exa Dark Sider?l Musk’s name has a double meaning, with “Exa” referring to a supercomputing term, exaFLOPS and “Dark” representing “the unknown.” She further explained, “People fear it but truly it's the absence of photons. Dark matter is the beautiful mystery of our universe."
According to Vanity Fair, the third part of the young child’s name, “Sider?l” is pronounced, “sigh-deer-ee-el." Grimes said the word was “a more elven” spelling of sidereal, a word she explained as “the true time of the universe, star time, deep space time, not our relative earth time,” in addition to being a nod to Grimes’ favorite character from Lord of the Rings, who “chooses to abdicate the ring.”
Grimes and Elon have nicknamed their daughter “Y” as a nod to their son’s nickname of “X.”
In a March 2023 comment on Twitter accompanying a rare picture of the child, Grimes elaborated, “She's Y now, or ‘Why?’ or just ‘?’ (But the government won't recognize that). curiosity, the eternal question, .. and such."