Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt has taken the next formal step toward dropping Pitt from her last name, filing a legal notice that completed California's required newspaper publication process on August 14. A hearing on the petition is set for November 2.
The 18-year-old, who filed the paperwork on July 12, is asking to be known without the Pitt surname. In the filing, the reason was listed as personal. California law generally requires that a name-change petition be published before a judge can approve it, and Vivienne has now cleared that notice stage.
The move is not happening in isolation. Vivienne was already credited as Vivienne Jolie in the Playbill for Broadway's The Outsiders, where she helped produce the show alongside her mom, even though her legal name in the filing still included Pitt. That public use of a shorter surname had already signaled where she was heading before the court process caught up.
She is also not the first child in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's family to do this. Shiloh legally sought to drop Pitt when she turned 18 in May 2024, Zahara did the same in April, and Maddox did it in May. Knox has not filed to change his surname, though he omitted Pitt from his high school diploma in June and used Knox Jolie instead.
What happens on November 2 is now the key question. The publication requirement is finished, which means the petition is ready for judicial review; what remains is whether the court will grant the request and make Vivienne Jolie her legal name, or whether the filing will be left waiting for another round of paperwork.
