Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's son Maddox becomes latest sibling to legally drop dad's last name
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, 25, has officially dropped his father’s last name after a Los Angeles judge granted his petition to change his name to Maddox Chivan Jolie.
The decision comes amid similar name changes and legal petitions involving several of the former couple’s children, who have also moved to use their mother's last name publicly.
Maddox began using just Angelina Jolie's last name publicly months before legal approval
According to court documents obtained by Page Six, the Los Angeles judge granted Maddox’s petition. The order stated, “There are no objections, the petition for change of name is granted.”
“The Decree is signed and filed. The Petitioner’s name is changed from Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie,” it added. Maddox appeared remotely at the hearing alongside his attorney, Peter Kenneth Levine.
Judge Virginia Keeny presided over the proceedings at the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Stanley Mosk Courthouse. TMZ was the first to report the news.
The legal decision follows a report from Page Six two months earlier that Maddox and his sister Zahara had taken out newspaper advertisements announcing their respective petitions to remove “Pitt” from their last names.
The publication was a required step in California’s legal name-change process, allowing anyone who opposed the requests an opportunity to file an objection before the hearings. Maddox initially filed his petition in May, identifying the reason for the requested change as “personal.”
However, he had already begun using his mother’s last name publicly months before the legal approval. He was credited as “Maddox Jolie” for his work as an assistant director on Jolie’s film 'Couture', which was released in France in February.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children increasingly use Jolie surname
Maddox is not the only child of the former couple to distance themselves from their father’s surname. In May 2024, his sister Shiloh successfully petitioned a Los Angeles court to remove “Pitt” from her last name after turning 18.
Zahara has also filed a petition this year to legally change her name to Zahara Marley Jolie. The 21-year-old is scheduled to attend her name-change hearing on September 28. She had already been publicly using “Jolie,” including when she graduated from Spelman College in May and was introduced onstage as Zahara Marley Jolie.
In July, just days after her 18th birthday, Vivienne submitted paperwork to the Los Angeles Superior Court requesting that her legal name be changed from Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt to Vivienne Marcheline Jolie. She had previously used her mother’s surname publicly, including while working with Jolie on the Broadway production of 'The Outsiders' in 2024.
The middle name Marcheline refers to Jolie’s late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007 following a battle with ovarian and breast cancer. Meanwhile, Knox had already dropped “Pitt” from his last name on his high school diploma.
The teenager, who turned 18 on July 12, used the name Knox Jolie on his certificate after graduating from Fusion Academy in Los Angeles. Pitt and Jolie finalized their long-running divorce in December 2024, ending more than eight years of legal proceedings after she filed to dissolve their marriage in September 2016.
