Actress Portia de Rossi is taking on her wife Ellen DeGeneres’ surname.

The 37-year-old actress - who married the talk show host almost two years ago - filed a petition in a Los Angeles court to formally become Portia DeGeneres. “Petitioner is taking the last name of her spouse,” court papers state.

Portia signed the documents in March this year and filed them in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, but the name change won’t be official until a hearing takes place on September 23. Although Portia is cementing the couple’s love for one another by changing her name, it doesn’t look as if children are on the cards for them

Ellen, 52, recently revealed she and Portia have no plans to start a family: “I don’t think we’re going to have kids. We have animals, and we love them. And, you know, we are brand new aunts. Her brother and his wife just had a baby girl who’s a month old now, and it’s fun to be a part of that. It’s just a huge responsibility, and I don’t know that that’s something we want to take on. We’re very happily married without children.”

Portia and Ellen married in front of 30 guests at their Beverly Hills home on August 16 2008.