Zahara Jolie Legally Drops Brad Pitt’s Surname

Zahara Jolie has legally removed “Pitt” from her name. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, a California judge approved her request on Monday, September 28. No objections were filed. The 21-year-old’s legal name has changed from Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Marley Jolie.

Zahara began the process earlier this year. She signed her petition on April 28 before filing it in June and publishing the required notices. The hearing completed a process that took several months.

She had already been using Jolie publicly. During her 2023 induction into Alpha Kappa Alpha at Spelman College, she introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie. The same name was announced when she graduated from Spelman in May.

The paperwork has now caught up with the name she chose.

Zahara is the third of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s six children to complete a legal name change. Shiloh became Shiloh Jolie in 2024 after filing on her 18th birthday. Maddox also legally removed Pitt earlier this year. Vivienne has filed her own petition, with a hearing scheduled for November.

It may feel as though a Jolie-Pitt child drops the name every few weeks, but that impression comes partly from the legal process. Publicly using Jolie creates one headline. Filing a petition creates another. The required public notices produced more coverage, followed by the court hearing and final approval.

There is no evidence that the siblings coordinated these stages to keep embarrassing Pitt. Their ages and filing dates naturally stagger the announcements. Still, each completed petition returns attention to the same difficult fact: everal of Pitt’s adult children have separately taken legal action to remove his surname.

Zahara has not publicly explained her reasons, and she does not owe anyone a detailed account. She is an adult who filed legal documents, completed the required publication process and secured a court order approving the change. This was not a nickname chosen by Angelina or an accidental omission from a programme. It was Zahara’s formal decision.

The wider family history makes that decision impossible to ignore. Angelina filed for divorce five days after a confrontation aboard a private plane in September 2016. She later alleged in court documents that Pitt became physically aggressive with her and some of their children. Pitt denied the allegations. The FBI closed its investigation without filing charges, while Los Angeles County authorities concluded their investigation without finding abuse. The former couple finalised their divorce in December 2024.

A name change cannot prove what happened within the family, and outsiders should not invent explanations Zahara has not provided. However, it does reveal how she wants to identify herself now.

People can debate the timing, the publicity and whether each legal stage deserves another headline. None of that changes the result.

Her name is Zahara Marley Jolie. It is also, frankly, a beautiful name.