hiloh Jolie-Pitt recently celebrated her 18th birthday, and her party plans reportedly included a trip to the courthouse. On May 27, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s daughter filed a legal plea to have her name changed, per TMZ. Since the filing came on the very first day Shiloh could legally make this official request, it certainly sounds like she’s been eager to make this big change.
The alteration of her last name is pretty telling. Shiloh filed to drop “Pitt” from her hyphenated surname, and instead just go by Shiloh Jolie. The name change was officially confirmed about three months later on Aug. 19, per NBC News, making her legal name Shiloh Jolie.
The move seems to suggest that Shiloh wants to distance herself from her father after his contentious divorce from her mother in 2016. The split was reportedly caused by an altercation between Brad and his eldest son Maddox, so there have been rumors for years that the couple’s six children have been on the outs with Brad.
While Shiloh is the first of Brangelina’s children to officially file for a name change, it sounds like she’s not alone in wanting to shorten the Jolie-Pitt surname. A few years back, reports bubbled up that Maddox wanted to drop “Pitt” from his last name. Then, Shiloh’s older sister Zahara notably introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie (sans Pitt) during her sorority induction ceremony in 2023. And just days before Shiloh’s legal plea, her younger sister Vivienne was listed as simply “Vivienne Jolie” in the playbill for a musical she produced.
When Brad and Angelina first started dating in the mid-2000s, she had recently adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 and Zahara from Ethopia in 2005. In 2006, Brad adopted the two kids, with himself and Angelina legally changing all of their last names to Jolie-Pitt. Shiloh was born later that same year, followed by Pax’s adoption from Vietnam in 2007, and Angelina giving birth to twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.