Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Maddox officially drops his dad’s last name

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s oldest son, Maddox Jolie, has officially cut ties with his famous father, legally dropping his last name.

On Monday (Tuesday AEST), a Los Angeles judge granted the 25-year-old’s petition to drop Pitt from his surname following no objections, according to court documents seen by Page Six.

His name has legally changed from Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie.

Maddox quietly dropped Pitt from his professional name last year while working on his mother’s film, Couture, where he was credited as “Maddox Jolie”.

He filed a petition to make it legal soon after, taking out a newspaper ad in the Los Angeles Daily Journal announcing his intention in June and July.

This satisfied a quirk in California law that requires those wanting to change their name to publish it in a newspaper – a centuries-old legal tradition originally designed to prevent fraud.

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Unlike in Australia, where name changes are handled quietly through state Births, Deaths and Marriages registries, California law forces the process through the court system and into the public eye.

All six of Pitt’s children have made legal or informal moves to distance themselves from him except for 22-year-old Pax, who at this stage continues to use his hyphenated Jolie-Pitt surname.

Maddox’s move followed in the footsteps of his younger sister, Shiloh, 20, who successfully petitioned the court to legally remove Pitt from her last name shortly after turning 18.

Sisters Zahara, 21, and Vivienne, 18, are also working through the legal process.

Zahara’s petition is to be decided in a hearing on September 28, while Vivienne’s is scheduled for November 2.

Vivienne’s twin, Knox, dropped Pitt from his last name on his high school graduation certificate, but at this stage has not filed a formal legal name-change petition.

Affectionately known as Brangelina during their time together, Jolie and Pitt met in 2004 on the set of the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

By the time the film was released in 2005, Pitt had left Jennifer Aniston to be with Jolie, who had already adopted Maddox from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002, when he was seven months old.

Pitt legally adopted Maddox, alongside sister Zahara, in January 2006.

Jolie and Pitt married in 2014 at their French chateau, before separating in 2016 following an incident on a private jet as it was ferrying the family from Europe to the US.