Fur was abused when she was young. This simple decision changed everything

September 1, 2026 — 5:00amIt’s increasingly common for adult children of celebrities to change their names after their parents’ divorces and subsequent family estrangement.Suri, the 20-year-old daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, changed her surname from Cruise to Noelle, her mother’s middle name. And last week, fresh off her 18th birthday, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt published a legal notice in the Los Angeles Daily Journal stating her intention to change her surname to Jolie.She will be the fourth of the couple’s six children to drop their father’s surname: Zahara, 21, Maddox, 25, and Shiloh, 20, have all legally changed their surname to Jolie, citing personal reasons.Fur Wale changed her name as an act of reclamation. Penny StephensFor Melbourne keynote speaker and speaking coach Fur Wale, formerly Jennifer Ann Wale, changing her name was also deeply personal.“As a teenager, I experienced abuse from a family friend. After losing my parents, I later found myself in another abusive relationship. As I began to heal from those experiences, I went through a profound process of discovering who I was beyond what had happened to me,” Wale says.“And somewhere along that journey, I realised my birth name no longer felt like it represented the woman I had become, or the woman I was choosing to be.”She officially changed her name to Fur in 2016, when she was 54.The decision wasn’t simple and required considerable reflection.“My mother chose my first name, so it has been a big part of my story and my history,” Wale says.“But for me, changing my name was an act of self-definition. I had spent so much of my life having experiences define parts of me that I hadn’t chosen, [and] when I finally made the decision, I felt an incredible sense of certainty and peace.“There was no drama around it. It simply felt right, and the emotional significance of actually seeing my new name become official was empowering.”The name Fur is, in part, a homage to her original given name, Jennifer. “Instead of Fer, I made it Fur. It was unique,” she says. “For me, Fur represents authenticity, freedom and self-definition. It feels like me.”Dr Michelle Peterie from the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies at the University of Sydney, says that, for better or worse, names are central to our social identities.“Many people feel connected to their name and appreciate the sense of identity and belonging it provides,” she says.“When someone strongly dislikes or feels misrepresented by their name, however, it can be a source of deep distress. Because we use our names in almost every social interaction, this distress can be difficult to escape.”Of the six children shared by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, four have chosen to drop their father’s surname: (from left) Shiloh, Zahara, Vivienne and Maddox. WireImageThis can motivate some people to change their names.“Shedding the name that doesn’t ‘fit’ and choosing one that does can feel cathartic and empowering. It can also meaningfully shape how the person is seen and perceived by those around them,” Peterie says.There is no official nationwide data on how many Australians have changed their names. Records are kept separately in each state and territory. According to births, deaths and marriages records, between 2021 and 2025, 88,549 name changes were registered in NSW. In Victoria, there were 46,280 name changes registered for the same period.The process for changing your name is also set out by the states and territories, but restrictions on how many times you can do so in your lifetime (three) and how many times you can apply within a 12-month period (once) are consistent nationwide.A 2020 survey by the name-change service Easy Name Change found that some of the reasons Australians cited for making this decision included family circumstances such as divorce, simplifying a name that’s difficult to pronounce or spell, having a name that no longer suits their gender, and escaping domestic violence.A combination of factors prompted 32-year-old NSW man James Oliver to officially change his surname in 2012 by adopting his best friend’s surname. “By the time I was halfway through high school, I’d pretty much moved in [to the best friend’s family home] permanently, and his family were more of one to me than my own.”When, at 15, Oliver discovered that a person could legally change their name, he knew he wanted to as soon as possible, without parental consent. In Australia, you must be 18.“I spent hours looking into all the steps you had to take, documentation you needed and any restrictions so that I was ready to go as soon as I could,” Oliver says.“It was almost like a birthday present for myself, a way to separate myself from my past, my biological family who caused me pain, and to take ownership of my identity, my life and officially become a member of the family who raised me.”Dr Zena Burgess, CEO of the Australian Psychological Society, echoes Oliver’s sentiment, saying our names serve as psychological anchors shaping our sense of identity, with first names and surnames taking on different roles.“A person’s first name signals their ‘I’ or how they identify themselves individually compared to others, and their surname signals their ‘we’, or their sense of belonging to a group, especially their family,” she says.A name change can have a profound effect on a person’s wellbeing and is associated with higher self-esteem, which Oliver attests to.“It felt like a weight had been lifted off me when I changed my surname; I felt less stressed and more confident; it was the beginning of a new chapter for me.” .Fur shares a similar sentiment.“Changing your name doesn’t magically change your life,” she says. “[But] it represented the shift from being defined by what had happened to me to consciously defining who I wanted to be.”Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. 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