And now, two years later, Vivienne is following a similar path.
Maddox Has Also Asked to Become “Maddox Jolie”
The pattern became even more notable in 2026.
Maddox, the eldest of Jolie and Pitt's children, filed paperwork seeking to remove “Pitt” from his legal name.
According to E! News, Maddox was born Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt and petitioned to change his name to Maddox Chivan Jolie.
Unlike Shiloh's completed case, Maddox's petition was still part of the legal process at the time of reporting.
That distinction matters.
A person filing a name-change petition is not necessarily the same as a person whose name has already been legally changed.
The process can involve publication requirements, hearings and opportunities for objections.
So while headlines may describe Maddox as “dropping Pitt,” the most precise description is that he asked the court to remove Pitt from his legal name.
The same distinction applies to Zahara.
Zahara's Name Change Is Also Moving Forward
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt has also taken legal action.
In June 2026, the 21-year-old filed a petition requesting that her legal name become Zahara Marley Jolie.
The filing was another step in the growing pattern among the Jolie-Pitt children.
Zahara had already publicly used “Jolie” without “Pitt” before filing the petition.
In 2023, while introducing herself during a Spelman College event connected with Alpha Kappa Alpha, she referred to herself as Zahara Marley Jolie.
The moment received attention because it was one of the clearest public indications that she did not always use the full Jolie-Pitt surname.
In July 2026, Zahara took another step in the legal process by publishing notice of her petition in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. According to E! News, this publication is part of California's name-change procedure, which generally requires the petition to be published for four consecutive weeks, allowing objections to be submitted before a final hearing.
Thus, by the time Vivienne filed her own petition, there were already multiple siblings moving in the same legal direction.
Four Children Have Now Taken Formal or Public Steps
That brings the family situation into sharper focus.
Of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's six children, four have either legally changed their names, filed petitions to do so, or publicly used “Jolie” without “Pitt.”
Shiloh has already legally changed her name.
Maddox has filed a petition requesting the removal of Pitt.
Zahara has filed a similar petition and proceeded with the required publication step.
Vivienne has now filed her own petition.
But there is an important correction to many simplified versions of the story.
It would be inaccurate to say that five of the six children have officially dropped the Pitt surname.
There is no comparable verified legal filing for Knox, and there is no confirmed legal name-change petition for Pax in the sources reviewed.
Knox and Vivienne are twins and were the youngest of the six children.
Vivienne's filing therefore makes her the fourth sibling with a documented legal or public move away from the combined surname — not the fifth.
What About Pax and Knox?
Pax and Knox have attracted far less attention regarding their surnames.
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt is the second-oldest of the six children, while Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt is one of the twins.
Unlike Shiloh, Maddox, Zahara and Vivienne, neither has been publicly documented in the same way as having filed a petition to legally remove “Pitt.”
That does not tell us how either feels about the surname.
It simply means there is no reliable basis for claiming that they have made the same legal decision.
This is an important distinction when reporting on celebrity families.
The children are adults or approaching adulthood, but they are still private individuals with their own lives. A surname change can be meaningful, but it does not automatically reveal everything about a person's relationship with a parent.
In Vivienne's case, the court itself records the reason for the requested change only as “personal.”
Anything beyond that is speculation.
The Background: A Divorce That Lasted for Years
To understand why the surname story has attracted so much attention, it is impossible to ignore the history of Jolie and Pitt's relationship.
The couple met while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2004.
Their relationship became one of the most closely followed celebrity romances in the world.