Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt have taken the next formal step in removing Pitt from their surnames, and a judge is set to consider the request in September. The siblings filed documents in April, then completed the required four-week public notice period in June and July.
The filings put the name changes on a clear legal clock. Zahara was 21 and Maddox 24 when they filed, and their hearings now hinge on whether the court approves the change after the notice requirement has been met. For readers looking up Nicolas Cage, the reason is simple: this is the kind of story that turns on identity, family and the legal paperwork behind a public name.
The move fits a wider pattern within Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's family. Shiloh changed her surname to Jolie in 2024, making her the first of the children named in the record here to complete the switch. There are six children in the family, and these filings show that the decision to drop Pitt is not isolated to one sibling.
A source close to Pitt told News that he was heartbroken by how things had unfolded with his family, but also that he respected his children's decisions. That is the sharp edge in the story: the legal process is moving forward as the emotional split appears to be settled in only one direction. Pitt and Jolie met on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005, married in 2014, and Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 after an incident on board a private plane. In 2020, Jolie told Vogue that she had left Pitt for the wellbeing of her family.
That context matters because surname changes do not happen in a vacuum. In California, the process includes filing documents and publishing notice in a local paper for four weeks, which is exactly the step Zahara and Maddox have now completed. Hannah Leonard-Ripley went through a similar legal change last month, dropping her father's surname and replacing it with one that combines her mother's maiden name and her husband's surname. As with that case, a name can become less about inheritance and more about choice. The unanswered question now is whether September brings approval, or another pause in a family story that has already been years in the making.
