This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt has become the latest of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s six children to take formal legal steps to distance herself from her father’s famous surname.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the 18-year-old filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court requesting that her legal name be changed from Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt to Vivienne Marcheline Jolie. The reason listed on the filing is simply “personal,” and a hearing on the request has been scheduled for November 2, 2026.
The filing arrives just weeks after Vivienne turned 18 on July 12, a milestone birthday that has become something of a pattern among her siblings when it comes to pursuing legal name changes of their own.
While the court paperwork itself does not elaborate beyond the single word “personal,” the move is consistent with signals Vivienne has been sending publicly for close to two years now, well before she was legally able to file the petition herself.
That earlier signal came in 2024, when Vivienne worked alongside her mother as a producer on the Broadway production of “The Outsiders.”
In the Playbill for the Tony-winning musical, she was credited simply as “Vivienne Jolie,” dropping her father’s surname from her professional credit long before making it official in court.
At the time, the choice drew attention as one of the clearest indications yet that Vivienne, like several of her siblings, preferred to be associated primarily with her mother’s name rather than the hyphenated surname she had grown up with.
A Pattern Among All Six of the Former Couple’s Children
Vivienne’s petition is far from an isolated case within the family. Her older sister Shiloh was the first of the six children to formally complete the process, filing to drop “Pitt” from her name on her own 18th birthday and publishing the required legal notice in the Los Angeles Times as part of the process.
A judge approved Shiloh’s name change in 2024, making her legally Shiloh Jolie going forward, and she has since become known in the dance world simply as “Shi.”
Two of Vivienne’s other siblings currently have petitions of their own working through the courts. Zahara, 21, is seeking to become Zahara Marley Jolie, with a hearing on her petition scheduled for September 28.
Maddox, 24, has filed to be legally recognized as Maddox Chivan Jolie, with his hearing set for September 14. Maddox had also previously dropped the Pitt surname from his professional credit as assistant director on Jolie’s film “Couture,” echoing the same pattern Vivienne followed with her Playbill credit for “The Outsiders.”
That leaves only two of the six children who have not pursued a legal name change. Pax, 23, has kept the Pitt surname and remains the only one of the six children reported to still maintain a relationship with his father.
Knox, Vivienne’s twin brother, has also kept the legal Pitt surname for now, though he reportedly chose to go by “Knox Jolie” on his high school diploma when he graduated in June, suggesting he may be leaning in a similar direction even without a formal court filing yet.
The Family’s Ongoing Estrangement and Legal Battles
The wave of name changes has unfolded against the backdrop of a long and, at times, bitter estrangement between Pitt and his children.
Reports have noted that Pitt has not been seen publicly with any of his six children since 2016, the same year he and Jolie announced their split after two years of marriage.
Their divorce was not finalized until late 2024, nearly a decade after Jolie initially filed citing irreconcilable differences, and the two remain locked in an entirely separate legal dispute over Château Miraval, the French winery they once owned together.
Sources close to Pitt have publicly framed the pattern of name changes as part of a broader effort by Jolie to distance the children from their father.
A source close to Pitt previously told PEOPLE that it was “sad to see someone repeatedly publicize their successful alienation of their children from the other parent,” reflecting a viewpoint that has been echoed in other reporting suggesting Pitt’s camp views the string of legal filings as evidence of a deliberate campaign rather than simple personal preference on the part of each child.
Additional court filings connected to the Miraval litigation have separately included claims from a former security contractor alleging that Jolie encouraged the children to avoid spending time with their father during custody visits, allegations that surfaced as part of the winery dispute rather than the name change petitions themselves.
Jolie, for her part, has not directly addressed the specifics of Vivienne’s or her other children’s name changes in a formal public statement.
She has previously spoken more broadly about her approach to parenting six children who each have their own personalities and choices to make, framing the household as one built around six distinct individuals rather than a single unified narrative.
Whatever the underlying dynamics between the two parents, none of the six children involved have issued detailed public statements of their own explaining their individual decisions beyond what has appeared in official court paperwork.
What Comes Next for Vivienne’s Petition
Under California law, name change petitions like Vivienne’s typically require a scheduled court hearing before a judge can grant final approval, which is why her request will not become official until at least November 2, when her hearing is set to take place.
That timeline mirrors the process her older siblings have already gone through, including Shiloh’s completed change in 2024 and the petitions still pending for Zahara and Maddox later this year.
For now, Vivienne joins Shiloh as the second of Pitt and Jolie’s children to take formal legal action specifically to remove the Pitt surname, with Zahara and Maddox’s petitions still awaiter court approval in the coming months.
Whether Knox eventually follows his twin sister’s lead with a formal filing of his own remains unclear, though his choice to go by “Knox Jolie” on his diploma suggests the door has not been fully closed.
As it stands, Pax remains the only one of the six siblings who has neither changed nor signaled an intention to change his legal name, and the only one still reported to maintain contact with Pitt directly.
The broader story of the Pitt-Jolie family’s post-divorce years continues to be defined as much by these quiet legal filings as by the more headline-grabbing disputes over the Miraval winery.
Each new petition adds another data point to a pattern that has now touched four of the couple’s six children, even as neither Pitt nor Jolie has offered a detailed public accounting of exactly what has driven each individual decision.
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