Elon Musk's transgender daughter files to ditch surname, affirm her gender - report

  • 21/06/2022
Elon Musk
"I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form." Photo credit: Getty Images

One of Elon Musk's eight children has filed documents to ditch the Musk moniker as well as declare her gender identity, according to TMZ.

The gossip website reported that 18-year-old Xavier filed documents in LA County saying she now wants to be known as Vivian Jenna Wilson and recognised as female.

According to the outlet, the reason for Xavier wanting to change her name was listed as: "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."

That's probably not a surprise, given some of Musk's previous tweets on transgender issues.

"Pronouns suck", he tweeted in 2020. Later that year, after an article was published criticising the billionaire for sharing an anti-trans meme on his Twitter account, he had another go.

"I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare," he tweeted, indicating how the words look is more important to him than how people define themselves.

Musk has previously been criticised for giving his two children with music artist Grimes "absurd" and "weird" forenames.

First born was Vivian's half-brother X Æ A-12 (known as 'X'), followed by half-sister Exa Dark Sideræl. 

Vivian also has a twin brother called Griffin, along with other siblings, triplets Saxon, Damian and Kai from Musk's marriage to Canadian author Justine Wilson.

Nevada, born in 2002, died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of just 10 weeks.

The hearing to allow Vivian to change her name will take place on Friday (US time).

Vivian's move coincides with her father consistently making headlines, with not all of them positive.

In the wake of his US$44 billion bid to buy Twitter, he dialled into a meeting with employees last week 10 minutes late and had an avatar that referred to a crude sexual position.

He also failed to reassure many of the platform's employees, according to reports, with talk about aliens, only allowing exceptional workers to work from home and saying the headcount needs to be cut.

His SpaceX company then sacked at least five people for circulating an open letter referring to Musk as a "frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks".

"Every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values," it continued.

"SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand."

Within a day and a half over 400 people had signed the letter, but it was then removed and the instigators fired.

Musk has also just been sued for US$258 billion by an investor of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, who has accused him of running a pyramid scheme to bolster its price.

Plaintiff Keith Johnson filed the complaint in federal court in Manhattan, saying Musk was racketeering by pushing Dogecoin only to let the price drop when it suited him.