Portia de Rossi to Take Ellen Degeneres' Name

Better than Amanda Lee Rogers.

Portia de Rossi is feeling like a change. The Arrested Development actress has filed papers to change her surname to that of her wife, Ellen Degeneres.

Read: Simon Cowell: Ellen Degeneres Controls Her Own Destiny

De Rossi, who was born Amanda Lee Rogers, filed the request with the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, just two days after a California judge ruled Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages, was unconstitutional.

The actress now wants to be formally known as Portia Lee James Degeneres. Portia and her comedian/talk show host wife Ellen Degeneres married in August 2008 after same-sex marriage licenses were briefly granted.

De Rossi, who was born and raised in Australia, had her name legally change at 15 because of her struggle to figure out who she was.

READ: Ellen DeGeneres Announces Exit From 'American Idol'

"In retrospect, I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay," she told the Advocate in 2009. "Everything just didn’t fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name."

She ended up picking Portia because she's a Shakespeare fan (the character appears in The Merchant of Venice), and De Rossi because, as she puts it: "I was Australian and I thought that an exotic Italian name would somehow suit me more than Amanda Rogers. When you live in Australia, Europe is so far away and so fascinating, so stylish and cultured and sophisticated."

As for her new name change, a hearing has been set for September 23.

In other naming news, Khloe Kardashian reveals she already has a baby name picked out.