Margot Robbie just changed her name and it has the world in a stir

Margot Robbie has quietly changed her name after nearly a decade of marriage, sparking headlines around the globe and a wide range of fan reactions.

The Wuthering Heights star, 36, appears to have dropped her maiden name and is now going by Margot Ackerley, according to business documents.

Forms for her and husband Tom Ackerley’s production company LuckyChap Entertainment had her listed under the new name when the UK’s Companies House published them this week.

It seems Robbie has adopted her assistant director husband’s surname just a few months shy of their 10-year wedding anniversary in December.

This doesn’t mean that the Australian actress will suddenly start appearing on movie posters as Margot Ackerley.

Like many stars who have stage names – Angelina Jolie (Angelina Jolie Voight), Tom Cruise (Thomas Cruise Mapother) and Nic Cage (Nicolas Kim Coppola), to name a few – Robbie will likely continue to use her maiden name in a professional capacity.

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That hasn’t stopped some fans from complaining about her name change.

“Barbie would never take a man’s surname,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.

Others said Robbie’s name change felt like a “bad business decision” given so much of her reputation on- and off-screen is built around her personal brand as ‘Margot Robbie’.

More dedicated fans insisted the change didn’t bother them and even congratulated Robbie for making the move after nearly a decade of marriage.

A woman’s decision to change her name after tying the knot can be fraught these days; some camps insist women should follow tradition and take their husband’s surname, while others claim it’s anti-feminist to adopt a man’s name.

It’s understood Robbie kept her maiden name when she and Ackerley married in Byron Bay in 2016, three years after they met on the set of Suite Française.

They welcomed their first child in 2024, a baby boy whose name they’ve never shared publicly.

It’s possible he also took Ackerley’s surname and Robbie’s decision to adopt it now is a move to share the same name as her son and husband.

Given how private she is about her personal life, it’s entirely possible we’ll never know the full story.

Earlier this year, she had to clear up a long-running claim about her childhood that people had been getting wrong for years.

“They say I was born in Dalby, which is where my family is from, but I wasn’t, I was born on the Gold Coast,” she told Magic FM in May.

"It's not a stupid rumour, it's just amazing that this far along, it's still incorrect."