lon Musk has 14 publicly reported children with four women: Justine Wilson, Grimes, Shivon Zilis and Ashley St. Clair. His children are Nevada Alexander, Griffin, Vivian Jenna Wilson, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl, Techno Mechanicus, Strider, Azure, Arcadia, Seldon Lycurgus and Romulus. Nevada, Musk’s first child, died in infancy in 2002, leaving 13 publicly known living children.
The family has grown over more than two decades, and several of the younger children’s births were initially private. Some became public through interviews, court documents, biographies or announcements from their parents. That is why older articles about Elon Musk children can show different totals.
Musk has also been unusually open about why he believes having more children is important. His explanation is largely tied to declining birth rates. In 2021, he warned that “if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble,” calling low birth rates one of the biggest risks to civilization.
That gives the family story a second dimension. The number of children is a fact. Musk’s own explanation for why population growth matters to him is another.
Who are the mothers of Elon Musk’s children?
The four women publicly identified as mothers of Elon Musk’s children are Justine Wilson, Grimes, Shivon Zilis and Ashley St. Clair. Wilson has six children with Musk, Grimes has three, Zilis has four and St. Clair has one.
Mother | Children | Number |
Justine Wilson | Nevada, Griffin, Vivian, Kai, Saxon, Damian | 6 |
Grimes | X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl, Techno Mechanicus | 3 |
Shivon Zilis | Strider, Azure, Arcadia, Seldon Lycurgus | 4 |
Ashley St. Clair | Romulus | 1 |
That adds up to 14 children. Nevada is included in the total even though he died as an infant.
The number has changed as previously private births became known. Seldon Lycurgus, for example, was publicly announced by Zilis in February 2025. Romulus had already been born in 2024, but his existence became public later.
There is also an interesting window into how Musk thinks about family. In a December 2025 conversation with Indian entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Musk was asked whether he would adopt children. His answer was not that he opposed adoption. Instead, he said he already had his “hands full” and wanted to be able to “spend some time with my kids.”
That comment is useful because it puts a qualification around Musk’s otherwise frequent pronatalist statements: he has also publicly acknowledged that having a large number of young children creates a practical limit on how much time he can spend with each one.
Elon Musk’s children with Justine Wilson
Justine Wilson is the mother of Musk’s first six children: Nevada Alexander, twins Griffin and Vivian, and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian.
Musk and Wilson married in 2000. Their first child arrived two years later.
Nevada Alexander
Nevada Alexander Musk was born in 2002 and died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome. He was Musk and Wilson’s first child.
Wilson later wrote publicly about the loss. Nevada is sometimes excluded from lists that focus only on Musk’s living children, but he remains part of the total number of children Musk has fathered.
The loss also shaped the early history of the family in a way that is often reduced to a single sentence in celebrity profiles. It was the first experience of parenthood for both Musk and Wilson, followed by the births of their twins and triplets.
Griffin and Vivian Jenna Wilson
Griffin and Vivian were born as twins in 2004. Vivian was formerly named Xavier Alexander Musk and legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson in 2022.
Vivian has subsequently spoken publicly about her relationship with her father. Musk, meanwhile, has described their relationship as strained. In a 2022 Financial Times interview, he said he had “very good relationships” with his other children but acknowledged of Vivian: “Can’t win them all.”
That is one of the rare occasions when Musk directly discussed the relationship with one of his children in an interview.
Griffin has largely remained outside the public spotlight.
Kai, Saxon and Damian
Kai, Saxon and Damian are triplets born in 2006. Like the twins, they were conceived through IVF.
Musk and Wilson divorced in 2008, closing the first major chapter of Musk’s family history.
The children from this marriage have generally lived far less publicly than Musk himself. That distinction becomes increasingly important as the family grows: being one of Elon Musk children does not automatically mean becoming a public figure.
Elon Musk’s children with Grimes
Musk and musician Grimes have three children: X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus.
Their names attracted enormous attention, but Musk and Grimes have also kept substantial parts of their children’s lives private.
X Æ A-Xii
X Æ A-Xii was born on May 4, 2020, and is commonly called X.
The unusual name immediately became international news. Grimes later explained the meaning behind its components, including references to artificial intelligence, aircraft and the Roman numeral XII.
X has occasionally appeared alongside Musk at public events. His father has also spoken about him in the context of his own interest in space.
But Musk’s comments about children go beyond his own family. During a 2022 episode of the Full Send podcast, Mark Cuban recalled congratulating Musk on another child and asking how many children he intended to have.
Musk’s reported reply was short: “Mars needs people.”
The comment fits neatly into Musk’s broader argument that humanity will eventually need people living beyond Earth.
Exa Dark Sideræl
Exa Dark Sideræl was born via surrogate in December 2021 and is commonly known as Y.
Grimes revealed her daughter’s existence in a 2022 interview after initially keeping the birth private.
She explained that “Exa” referred to exaFLOPS, while “Sideræl” was connected to sidereal time and the stars.
There was another unusual piece of timing here: Musk and Zilis welcomed their twins, Strider and Azure, in November 2021, meaning Musk became the father of children with two different women within weeks.
Techno Mechanicus
Techno Mechanicus, known as Tau, was born in 2022. His existence became public through Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk.
Grimes subsequently acknowledged him but has shared relatively little about his private life.
That is a recurring pattern throughout the story of Elon Musk children. The public may know that a child exists without knowing how that child spends their days.
Elon Musk’s children with Shivon Zilis
Shivon Zilis has four children with Musk: twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia and son Seldon Lycurgus.
Zilis is a technology executive who has worked with Musk at Neuralink and previously worked at OpenAI.
Strider and Azure
Strider and Azure were born in November 2021. Their existence became public in 2022 after court documents revealed that Musk had sought to give the twins his surname.
The births were initially kept out of the public spotlight.
Musk later pushed back against descriptions of the family arrangement as secret. In 2024, he said the birth of another child with Zilis had not been a secret because “friends and family knew.”
That distinction is worth keeping in the article because private and secret are not necessarily the same thing.
Arcadia
Arcadia was born on February 28, 2024, according to information later shared publicly by Zilis.
Musk confirmed that he and Zilis had welcomed another child in 2024, while again objecting to the idea that he was deliberately hiding the birth.
Zilis later publicly marked Arcadia’s first birthday.
Seldon Lycurgus
Seldon Lycurgus is Musk and Zilis’ fourth child and was announced in February 2025.
His arrival brought Musk’s publicly reported total to 14 children.
Around this period, Musk’s comments about population were becoming increasingly explicit. In a 2025 CNN report, he said that falling birth rates were “a civilizational risk.” Asked whether his large family was part of the reason, Musk joked: “I’m trying to set a good example.”
That is a far more useful piece of context than simply saying Musk is “a pronatalist.” It comes directly from Musk and connects his public argument about fertility with his own family.
Who is Romulus, Elon Musk’s child with Ashley St. Clair?
Romulus is the son of author Ashley St. Clair, who announced in February 2025 that Musk was his father. St. Clair said the child was born in September 2024.
This is the most legally complicated chapter in the story of Elon Musk children.
St. Clair initially identified Musk as the father. Musk did not initially confirm paternity publicly, and the matter subsequently entered the courts.
A later paternity test became part of the public reporting. The Wall Street Journal reported that testing showed a 99.9999% probability of paternity.
The episode is important because it demonstrates why the wording in a celebrity family article needs to change as evidence develops. An initial allegation and a later reported DNA result are not the same fact.
It is also why this section should avoid turning the child himself into part of the controversy.
Why does Elon Musk have so many children?
Musk has repeatedly said that he believes declining birth rates pose a serious threat to humanity.
In December 2021, he said that low birth rates were among the biggest risks to civilization and warned: “If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.”
He made a similar argument during a 2025 CNN interview, saying, “If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble.” When asked whether this explained why he had so many children, he answered with the joke about trying to “set a good example.”
Musk has also written on X that “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”
His position is therefore easy to document without speculating about his psychology: Musk believes falling fertility is a major long-term risk and has repeatedly advocated for people to have more children.
He has also acknowledged the practical side of parenting. In his 2025 conversation with Nikhil Kamath, Musk said he wanted to be able to “spend some time with my kids.” He added that beyond a certain number, spending time with every young child becomes difficult.
That is perhaps one of the more revealing comments in the entire collection because it is less about ideology and more about the reality of raising a large family.
Why are Elon Musk’s children’s names so unusual?
Several of Musk’s younger children’s names draw from science, computing, space, literature and history.
The most obvious examples are:
- X Æ A-Xii: technology, aviation and AI-related references.
- Exa Dark Sideræl: computing and astronomy references.
- Techno Mechanicus: technology and classical-language influences.
- Seldon Lycurgus: a combination associated with science fiction and ancient history.
The names have become part of the public fascination with Elon Musk children, particularly X Æ A-Xii.
But Musk himself has also joked about the sheer scale of his family. In a 2025 conversation with Nikhil Kamath, he described his children as “like an army” and said he was trying to get an “entire Roman legion.”
That comment was clearly delivered humorously, but it also shows how Musk himself talks about the size of his family: not as an ordinary household, but as something unusually large even by his own standards.
Elon Musk’s children at a glance
Child | Mother | Birth | Key detail |
Nevada Alexander | Justine Wilson | 2002 | Died in infancy |
Griffin | Justine Wilson | 2004 | Twin |
Vivian Jenna Wilson | Justine Wilson | 2004 | Formerly Xavier |
Kai | Justine Wilson | 2006 | Triplet |
Saxon | Justine Wilson | 2006 | Triplet |
Damian | Justine Wilson | 2006 | Triplet |
X Æ A-Xii | Grimes | 2020 | Known as X |
Strider | Shivon Zilis | 2021 | Twin |
Azure | Shivon Zilis | 2021 | Twin |
Exa Dark Sideræl | Grimes | 2021 | Known as Y |
Techno Mechanicus | Grimes | 2022 | Known as Tau |
Romulus | Ashley St. Clair | 2024 | Paternity later supported by reported DNA testing |
Arcadia | Shivon Zilis | 2024 | Born Feb. 28 |
Seldon Lycurgus | Shivon Zilis | 2025 | Zilis’ fourth child with Musk |
What does Elon Musk’s family story tell us?
The basic answer is straightforward: Elon Musk has 14 publicly reported children with four women, and 13 are living.
But the more interesting story is how that number developed.
His first child was born in 2002. More than 20 years later, his family includes adult children from his first marriage, younger children with Grimes and Zilis, and Romulus, whose paternity became the subject of a legal dispute before a reported DNA test established a 99.9999% probability of paternity.
Musk’s own comments provide another thread through the story. He has warned that falling birth rates could cause civilization to “crumble,” joked that “Mars needs people,” described his children as “like an army,” and, more practically, acknowledged that he wants to be able to spend time with them.
That is enough context without inventing a motive for every relationship or birth.
The names are public. The births are public. Some legal proceedings are public.
The children’s private lives do not need to be.