Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and X, has explained the inspiration behind the name of his son Strider Sekhar, drawing attention to an Indian scientific legacy after a recent social media post.
On X, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley shared a photograph of Musk with his twins, Strider Sekhar and Comet Azure, captioned: “Elon Musk: ‘Bringing a child into the world is a statement of optimism. We need to restore hope and excitement for the future—I believe it will surpass the past.’”
Responding to the post, Musk wrote: “Me with my son, Strider Sekhar (named after Aragorn & great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar) and daughter, Comet Azure, named after the most powerful spell in Elden Ring”
The post clarified that the middle name “Sekhar” is a tribute to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on stellar evolution, black holes and white dwarfs. The first name Strider refers to Aragorn, also known as “Strider”, a character from The Lord of the Rings.
Strider Sekhar and Comet Azure are twins born in November 2021 to Musk and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis via IVF. The twins were previously known publicly by their shorter names, Strider and Azure, but Musk’s post revealed their full names and the references behind them.
The Indian connection in Strider Sekhar’s name also comes through his mother. According to reports, Shivon Zilis has Indian heritage through her mother, Sharda Zilis, a Punjabi Hindu. Zilis was born in Canada and graduated from Yale University in 2008. She worked at Tesla between 2017 and 2019 and later served as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink. She was also associated with OpenAI, where she served on the board until 2023.
Musk and Zilis’s relationship became public in 2022 after court documents filed in Travis County, Texas, revealed that they had welcomed twins in November 2021. The documents related to changing the children’s names to include Musk’s surname and Zilis’s surname as a middle name. Reports say the pair has four children together.
Musk is known for choosing unconventional names for his children, often drawing from science, literature and popular culture. According to public records and reports, he has acknowledged fathering at least 14 children.
