Who Is Strider Sekhar Sirius? Elon Musk Reveals Story Behind His Son’s Indian Middle Name

Recently, on the podcast show ‘People by WTF’ hosted by the Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Elon Musk spoke about H-1B visas, Indian engineers, and the establishment of Starlink, and partner Shivon Zilis, who is of half-Indian descent. The conversation about Shivon sparked curiosity amongst the audience to know more about her and their children. Read along to know what the businessman and former Senior Advisor to the President of the United States has to share. 

Who is Strider Sekhar Sirius?

Musk and his half-Indian partner Zilis have four children together: twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia, and son Seldon Lycurgus. One of their sons has “Sekhar” as his middle name. As stated by Elon Musk in the podcast, it is a tribute to Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Chandrasekhar is one of the country’s scientific icons.

The idea of a Musk child with even the slightest Indian descent created a frenzy on the internet, leaving fans and listeners desperate to know more about Shivon Zilis and the child “Sekhar Musk”. However, his name is Strider Sekhar Sirius, one of the twins Musk had with Shivon. Musk’s naming choices usually orbit distant galaxies. The middle name of his son is basically a tribute to a scientist whose work shaped modern astrophysics. 

About Shivon Zilis

When asked if Ms. Zilis had spent any time in India, Mr. Musk stated, “I think her father was like an exchange student at the university, or something like that. I’m not sure of the exact details, but, just kind of thing where I don’t know… she was given up for adoption.”

Born in 1986 in Ontario, Canada, she holds dual citizenship in Canada and the United States. She kick-started her career at IBM and moved on to Bloomberg Beta and became one of the founding members. 

In 2016, Zilis joined OpenAI, co-founded by Elon Musk, and became the youngest member of its board of directors. During her time there, she became involved with his other ventures, including Neuralink and Tesla. In 2017, Shivon joined Neuralink, Musk’s neurotechnology company that aims to develop brain-machine interfaces. She led as a Director of Operations and Special Projects, and contributed significantly to the early development and operational strategy.