Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Other Celebrity Kids Who Dropped Their Famous Last Names

If you live in a country where celebrities are glamorized, where celebrities are pursued for their autographs, where celebrities are commonly admired or even worshipped, then you likely have some degree of fascination with celebrities.

It is hard to avoid this mass societal tendency to possess added interest in celebrity figures. You could claim to be the most apathetic person, but if Brad Pitt walked into a room I bet you would at least turn your head.

Celebrities are, if not cool and awesome, at least interesting. It’s natural, living in a society, to seek a degree of fame, and they are people who have accomplished the most fame.

We don’t merely seek fame. We tend to dream of having fancy cars and starring in well-known movies. Celebrities have the things that so many people dream of acquiring.

If you were a celebrity, who accomplished the things that most people dream of, would you hide the fact that you were a celebrity? Likewise, if you were related to a celebrity, would you hide the fact that you were related?

Given the glamorization of celebrities and celebrity lifestyles, it might seem very hard to imagine, but several people choose to hide the fact that they are related to celebrities.

Why Do Kids Drop Their Famous Last Names?

When you see a famous last name, perhaps you’re a teacher reading the attendance list, you instantly think of the person whom you associate most closely with that last name.

Surprised by seeing the last name and subconsciously motivated by your added interest in celebrity figures, you might be inclined to ask the person if he or she is related to the famous possessor of the last name.

Some kids don’t want that extra attention. They don’t want to be looked at differently or talked about more. It must get annoying to constantly hear about one’s parents, because one is constantly being viewed as less important. It must be frustrating to have people overlook you and want to talk about your parents, instead.

There are also people who take their interest to higher levels. Maybe they want to be your friend so that they can meet your parents.

More existentially, some kids don’t want to be defined by their parents. They don’t want to be thought of as their parents’ children but as individuals.

This is especially true if their celebrity parents have done something bad. People know more about what celebrities do than about what other individuals do, so the actions of celebrities more easily shine a light on their children.

1 Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

When Shiloh Jolie-Pitt became 18 and of legal age, she decided to drop the “Pitt” part of her surname.

She is an interesting case because “Jolie” is still a famous name; it is Brad Pitt who she did not want to be associated with.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were married, but then things started to go south in their relationship. One key event was a plane ride in 2016 where Brad Pitt is alleged to have abused her and his children.

If any parent abuses you, it is completely reasonable to want to disassociate yourself from that parent. So, in this case, Shiloh’s decision to drop the “Pitt” part of her surname does not so much seem motivated by her father’s celebrity status, because she decided to keep the “Jolie” part. The decision was motivated by her aversion to Pitt himself.

She is allying herself with her mother and separating herself symbolically from Pitt.

2 Malia Obama

Malia Obama, in her endeavor to be a film director, has dropped her famous last name and adopted a stage name. She is Malia Ann instead of Malia Obama. Ann is her middle name, so this does not so much seem like an act of disrespect toward her parents, as Shiloh Jolie disrespected Brad Pitt.

Instead, Malia Ann is trying to make it on her own in the entertainment industry. She wants her work to be judged on its own merits. This would have been very hard to have happen if she were to keep her last name.

Politically motivated people would praise or criticize her work in accordance with their political allegiances, Democratic or Republican, respectively.

By dropping her last name, she is allowing herself to be identified as her own person and disassociating herself from any sort of political debate that might distract people from the merits of her artistic work.

3 Suri Cruise

Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, dropped her famous last name and became Suri Noelle instead. Suri has stated that she wants to have her own distinct identity, implying that the famous name of Cruise constitutes an obstacle.

Because Noelle is her mother Katie Holmes’ middle name, it might seem like she is not really interested in having her own identity, because she is allowing herself to be identified with her famous mother.

However, choosing one’s emotional and social allegiances is a part of one’s identity. We are social creatures who are not made to be completely independent.

Suri Noelle has changed her name!

She has dropped the surname Cruise after ELEVEN years of no contact from her father.

It is astounding to me that he has been able to maintain his career without admonishment from people for basically abandoning his daughter after his divorce… pic.twitter.com/nZeMDLmTrT

— Nicole A_Little_Luney (@A_Little_Luney) May 15, 2024

So, this social component of individual identity construction is not paradoxical but indicative of the sort of living conditions that typify civilized life. We have to have parents, or other people who take care of us when we are too young to take care of ourselves, and, as part of our process of growing up, we choose to associate ourselves with those individuals who, by taking care of us, develop a bond with us.

In Suri’s case, she is estranged from her famous father and closer to her mother, whose care for her she wants to use her name choice to acknowledge.

Takeaway

We see that celebrity kids are motivated by things that other kids are motivated by. They want to feel close to and associate themselves with people they love. They also want to distance themselves from people who haven’t been so good to them. As much as possible, they want to make their own way in life and to be judged by their own merits.

Because they have a famous last name, they might perceive themselves as having a certain obstacle, to certain goals, that they feel the need to eliminate by dropping that name.

Not all kids change their last name. The Trump children are still the Trump children, for example. They, also Republicans, show allegiance to their father by keeping their last name, as does Hunter Biden by keeping his last name. Several athletes with famous fathers likewise keep their famous last name, despite the pressure they feel from having an accomplished father.

It seems to be more normal in the entertainment industry for individuals to drop their famous last name. So, mixed into this whole discussion about dropping last names, there does seem to be a matter of following accepted norms within a certain kind of industry.

This point about following social norms further complicates the thought that individuals want to be independent. To some extent, it is more accurate to say, rather, that they want to achieve a measure of control over who or what they associate with.