Two More of Brad Pitt's Children Officially Move to Drop His Last Name

Two more of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children have officially begun the legal process of dropping their father's surname. Zahara and Maddox have both filed petitions with the court and, as required under California law, published notices of their intended name changes in a local newspaper.

According to court documents, 21-year-old Zahara published the required notice in the Los Angeles Daily Journal for four consecutive weeks. Unless objections are filed before her court hearing on September 28, a judge is expected to officially approve the change. She is seeking to change her legal name from Zahara Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Jolie.

Twenty-four-year-old Maddox is following the same legal procedure. In his filing, he requested that his name be changed from Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie, citing personal reasons for the decision.

In practice, both siblings have already stopped using Pitt's surname. Zahara introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie during her graduation ceremony at Spelman College, while Maddox omitted his father's last name from the credits of Couture, the film directed by Angelina Jolie on which he worked.

They are not the first members of the family to take this step. Last year, Shiloh officially dropped Pitt's surname after filing her own petition. According to media reports, she hired her own attorney and covered all of the legal costs herself. Earlier, Vivienne also stopped using her father's surname, listing herself as Vivienne Jolie in the Playbill for the Broadway musical The Outsiders.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt share six children: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne. Since the couple's highly publicized divorce, Pitt's relationship with most of his children has reportedly remained strained, according to multiple media reports.