Pax Jolie-Pitt’s roots lie in Vietnam. He spent his early years at the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. Per a report by Hello!, Pax was known as Pham Quang Sang at the orphanage — that is, until he was adopted by American actor Angelina Jolie in 2007.
The young boy was around 3-and-a-half years old when Angelina became his mother and, thereafter, took on the name Pax Thien Jolie. According to an archived article from Time, Pax means peace in Latin, while Thien, in Vietnamese, means sky. It was only later that year that a Santa Monica court permitted the child’s name to legally be changed to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt to reflect the identity of his new father, actor Brad Pitt, Angelina’s then-partner. According to Adomir, an adoption agency in Vietnam, Vietnamese law allows only inter-country adoption for single persons, not unmarried couples.
While little is known about Pax’s biological family, Time reports he was found at a local hospital in Vietnam, abandoned at birth, in 2003. After a failed search for his birth mother, the Tam Binh orphanage took him in at 1 month of age — there, he stayed until March 2007. Angelina, while leaving the orphanage with her little one, reportedly wrote in their visitors’ book, “Thank you for taking such wonderful care of my son. I am sure he will miss your beautiful, caring staff as much as you will miss him.”