Zahara Jolie-Pitt has taken the next legal step toward officially dropping her father, Brad Pitt’s surname. The 21-year-old daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt published a notice of her name change petition in the Los Angeles Daily Journal once a week for four consecutive weeks, completing one of California’s required hurdles for a legal name change. The notice ran on June 16, June 23, June 30, and July 7, calling for anyone opposing the change to submit a written opposition before the final hearing on September 28.
The Spelman College graduate filed her petition in June, asking to legally change her name from Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Marley Jolie. She had already been publicly using “Jolie” without “Pitt” for years, introducing herself as Zahara Marley Jolie during her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority induction in 2023. At her college graduation in May, her name was read aloud as Zahara Marley Jolie when she accepted her diploma.
Zahara is now the third of Brad and Angelina’s six children to legally distance themselves from the family name. Sister Shiloh officially dropped “Pitt” from her name in 2024, while brother Maddox recently filed to do the same. Vivienne has also publicly stopped using the surname “Pitt” in professional credits. A source close to Brad Pitt has criticized the move, calling it part of a “campaign to alienate children from their father”.
If a judge signs off at the September 28 hearing, Zahara will officially become Zahara Marley Jolie. Her decision continues a pattern among the Jolie-Pitt children, who have increasingly moved away from their father’s surname since their parents’ split in 2016 and the finalization of their divorce in December 2024.
