Elon Musk has 14 children. They all have some unique names, one of which is X A-Xii Musk. But among all these, one baby name is inspired by the connection with India. He is Strider Shekhar and his latest photo is making waves on social media. According to Musk, Shekhar is named after Indian physicist Subramaniam Chandrasekhar. Now, this is not Shekhar’s only India connection. He is also connected to India through his mother Shivan Zelis.

Musk recently shared a photo with his two children, Strider and Comet. In the caption accompanying the photo, he wrote: “Me with my son, Strider Shekhar (named after Aragorn and the great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar) and daughter, Comet Azur, named after the most powerful spell in the Elden Ring.”

In that caption, Musk clarified that the name “Shekhar” is a tribute to renowned astrophysicist Subramanian Chandrasekhar, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his groundbreaking work on the evolution, collapse of stars, and ultimately the formation of black holes and white dwarfs.

Given Musk’s history of naming his children after his interests and inspirations, choosing the name “Shekhar” follows a familiar pattern. For example, the name of his child X A-12 – whom he shares with singer Grimes – is a mix of artificial intelligence, aircraft references and linguistic symbolism. The name Comet Azure is inspired by gaming lore. So in that context, naming a baby after one of the greatest minds in astrophysics fits perfectly with his fascination for space, science and technology.

Shekhar’s mother also has India connection

But Shekhar’s Indian connections are not limited to the Nobel laureate.

Shekhar’s mother Shivan Zilis is another link to India for him. This is because Shivone has Indian heritage through her mother who was Punjabi. Shivon was born in Markham, Ontario, to a Hindu Punjabi Indian mother, Sharda Zilis, and a white Canadian father, Richard Zilis. She grew up in Canada, attended Unionville High School and later graduated from Yale University in 2008.

As far as her relationship with Musk is concerned, her professional paths crossed with Musk’s long before their personal lives became public. From 2017 to 2019, he worked at Tesla as a project director in the Autopilot product and chip design team. He later served as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink. The two were also connected through OpenAI, where Zilis was involved in non-profit work and served on the board until 2023, reportedly one of the places where she is believed to have met Musk for the first time.

Zilis and Musk’s relationship came to public attention in 2022, when court documents filed in Travis County, Texas revealed that Musk and Zilis had given birth to twins, a son and a daughter, via IVF in November 2021. The filing was related to changing the twins’ names to include their father’s last name and their mother’s last name as middle names. Reportedly, the couple has four children.

Twins Shekhar and Azure were born in November 2021. Daughter Arcadia was reportedly born in mid-2023, and son Selden Lycurgus was born in late 2024 or early 2025.

As for Musk’s family tree, he reportedly has 14 children: Nevada, Vivian, Griffin, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X A-12, Axa, Strider, Azure, Techno, Arcadia, Seldon Lycurgus, and Romulus. And the number is expected to increase. Musk has often said that falling birth rates pose a serious threat to civilization. Or as he said in one of his posts on