Elon Musk’s transgender child has filed a request to change her name – to reaffirm her gender identity and distance herself from her father.

Mr Musk’s daughter, born Xavier Alexander Musk, filed a petition for a name change and a birth certificate reflecting her new gender identity with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica in April.

The 18-year-old has asked the court to change her gender recognition from male to female and to register her new name, according to documents available online at PlainSite.org.

Mr Musk’s daughter said the change was partly, but not entirely, to reaffirm her new gender identity.

Citing her reasons for the request, she said: “Gender identity and the fact I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.

Her new name was redacted in the online document. Her mother is Justine Wilson, who divorced Mr Musk in 2008.

Neither a lawyer who represents the would-be Twitter owner nor the Tesla media office immediately responded to Reuters’ request for comment.

A hearing on the request is scheduled to take place on Friday.

Although there has been no further explanation of the rift between Mr Musk and his daughter, the Tesla CEO has been vocal on transgender issues in the past.

He weighed in on the issue of transgender people choosing their preferred pronouns in a 2020 tweet, saying: “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare”.

Tweet from @elonmusk

In May, about a month after his daughter’s name and gender change document was filed, Mr Musk declared his support for US Republicans, whose elected representatives support legislation that would limit transgender rights in states across the country.

On June 15, Mr Musk said that he had cast his first vote for a Republican in Texas’ special election for a House seat.

Tweet from @elonmusk

Tweet from @Tesla

Mr Musk also took to Twitter on June 1 – the beginning of Pride Month – to mock companies, including Twitter, for changing their logos and branding in recognition of the occasion.

Twitter users promptly accused him of hypocrisy, reminding the Tesla CEO that his own company had previously shared Pride Month celebrations online.

Mr Musk’s proposed US$44 billion ($66 billion) Twitter takeover has recently hit the rocks, the world’s richest man saying he may abandon his plans to buy the platform if it refuses to provide fake-account data.

-with Reuters