For years, the six children of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt carried one of the most recognizable surnames in Hollywood: Jolie-Pitt.

Now, another one of those children has officially chosen to leave part of that name behind.

Maddox, the former couple’s eldest son, has legally removed “Pitt” from his surname.

On Sept. 14, 2026, a Los Angeles County judge approved the 25-year-old’s petition to change his legal name from Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie. The request was granted without objection, according to court records reported by PEOPLE.

The legal change makes Maddox the second of Jolie and Pitt’s six children to officially remove “Pitt” from a surname.

His younger sister Shiloh completed her own legal name change in 2024, shortly after turning 18.

Other siblings have also taken steps toward using “Jolie” without “Pitt,” either publicly or through the legal system, making Maddox’s decision part of a much larger family story that has unfolded slowly over the decade since Jolie and Pitt separated.

Maddox first filed his petition in May 2026.

In the paperwork, he reportedly described the reason for the change simply as “personal.”

He did not publicly explain the decision in greater detail.

That restraint is important.

Given the long and intensely public history surrounding his parents’ divorce, custody disputes and strained family relationships, it would be easy to interpret the name change as a public statement against Pitt.

But Maddox himself has not publicly framed it that way.

What is certain is that the legal paperwork now reflects a name he had already begun using professionally.

Maddox was credited as “Maddox Jolie” for his work as an assistant director on his mother’s film Couture.

That means the Sept. 14 court order did not introduce a completely new public identity.

It formalized one he was already using.

The history behind his name goes back more than two decades.

Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002, when he was still an infant.

At the time, he was legally her son alone.

After Jolie began a relationship with Brad Pitt, Pitt later moved to adopt Maddox, as well as Jolie’s daughter Zahara. The children’s surnames were subsequently changed to Jolie-Pitt.

Over the years, the family expanded to include Pax, Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne.

For a period, Jolie and Pitt were one of the most famous couples in the world, and the Jolie-Pitt surname became almost a cultural brand of its own.

That image changed dramatically in 2016.

Jolie filed for divorce in September of that year after an incident aboard a private plane involving Pitt and members of the family.

Authorities investigated the incident, but Pitt was not charged.

What followed was not a quick celebrity divorce.

The legal proceedings stretched on for more than eight years, involving prolonged disagreements over custody and other issues.

Jolie and Pitt’s divorce was ultimately finalized in December 2024.

Throughout that period, reports about Pitt’s relationship with some of his children became increasingly complicated.

Maddox, in particular, was often described in media reports as having a strained relationship with Pitt.

Again, Maddox has rarely spoken publicly about those family dynamics himself.

That makes the legal name change more significant in one sense and more limited in another.

It is a concrete decision.

But the reason behind it belongs to him.

The broader family pattern, however, is difficult to ignore.

Shiloh legally dropped “Pitt” from her name in August 2024 after petitioning the court as an adult.

Zahara had already publicly introduced herself as “Zahara Marley Jolie” while attending Spelman College and later began the legal process to remove Pitt from her surname.

Vivienne has also publicly used “Jolie” and filed her own petition to change her legal name.

That means several of Jolie and Pitt’s children have, in different ways, moved away from the surname they once shared.

Still, each child’s decision is legally and personally separate.

A surname can represent many things: family connection, identity, history, independence, adulthood or simply personal preference.

For adult children of divorced parents, choosing which family name to carry can be deeply personal even without celebrity scrutiny.

For the Jolie-Pitt children, those decisions happen under a microscope.

Every filing becomes a headline.

Every omission becomes a source of speculation.

Every legal step is interpreted as evidence about relationships the public cannot fully see.

That is why Maddox’s own stated reason — “personal” — may be the most appropriate way to understand the decision.

He is 25 years old now.

He works behind the scenes in film and has increasingly built an identity separate from the enormous fame of both parents.

Jolie recently spoke about how her children are developing their own interests and independent lives, describing Maddox as someone pursuing interests including aviation and film. She also emphasized that she tries to allow all of her children to become their own people rather than forcing them into a predetermined path.

His name change fits naturally into that stage of adulthood.

A legal surname is one of the clearest declarations of how a person wants to be identified.

For Maddox, the answer is now official.

Not Jolie-Pitt.

Jolie.

The timing also carries an unavoidable symbolic weight.

The court approved the change exactly 10 years after the September 2016 family conflict that preceded Jolie’s divorce filing.

There is no public evidence that Maddox deliberately chose that anniversary for the hearing, and it would be speculative to assume so.

But the coincidence underscores how much time has passed.

The child who once stood beside two of the most famous actors in Hollywood is now an adult making his own legal decisions about his identity.

For Brad Pitt, the surname changes among his children have reportedly been painful.

Sources close to him have described the growing distance within the family as deeply upsetting, while people close to Jolie have pushed back against claims that she is responsible for the children’s choices.

Those competing accounts reflect the larger problem with understanding this family from the outside.

There are years of legal filings, allegations, private conflicts and conflicting narratives.

But the children themselves are increasingly adults.

Their choices belong to them.

Maddox’s hearing on Sept. 14 was relatively simple compared with the emotional history surrounding it.

He reportedly appeared remotely with his attorney.

There were no objections.

The judge granted the petition.

And with a signed decree, Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt legally became Maddox Chivan Jolie.

On paper, it was the removal of one word.

Within the larger history of one of Hollywood’s most closely watched families, however, it represented something much bigger.

A name once chosen for him by his parents has been replaced by one he has chosen for himself.

And after years in which the Jolie-Pitt family story was shaped largely by the decisions of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, their children are increasingly old enough to write their own chapters.