Quick answer: A guardian files it, the fee is Rs 1,700 rather than the adult Rs 1,100, and the file is the ordinary one with guardian wording throughout. Before paying, check whether your child needs it at all: a school register correction, a birth certificate correction and an adoption order all work without publication. Where it is genuinely needed, know that the notification stays public permanently, including after your child turns eighteen and can decide such things for themselves.
Most parents who reach this page have been quoted for a gazette by somebody who did not ask their child's age or which office was asking. Both questions matter, and the honest answer for a good number of families is that no publication is required. So the first half of this page is about whether to file, and the second half is about how, for those who should.
At a Glance
| Fee | Rs 1,700, against Rs 1,100 for an adult |
| Who files | A parent or guardian; a minor cannot |
| Who signs | The guardian, on every document |
| Publication | 25 to 45 days, Part IV, same as an adult |
| Download | Free, permanent, no seal exists |
| Often not needed for | School registers, birth certificates, adoption |
| Stays public | Permanently, including after eighteen |
| At eighteen | Your child can change it again themselves |
Key Takeaways
- Check whether publication is needed before paying; often it is not.
- The higher fee reflects the filing category, not extra work or speed.
- Every document in the file is signed by the guardian; the child signs nothing.
- A notification is permanent and public, and does not lapse at eighteen.
- Your child can file their own change at eighteen if they wish to.
Do You Actually Need One: Quick Facts
| School register correction | No; a school application usually does it |
| Birth certificate correction | No; the registrar acts on documents |
| After adoption | Usually no; the order carries it |
| A spelling error anywhere | No; that is a correction |
| Genuinely renaming an older child | Yes |
| An office refused in writing | Yes, and keep the refusal |
| Board records after registration | Sometimes; ask the Board route first |
| Somebody quoted without asking the age | Ask again before paying |
Table of Contents
- Whether your child needs one
- Why Rs 1,700
- What is different in the file
- It is permanent, and public
- What happens at eighteen
- Using it afterwards
- Central Gazette: the complete process and file format
- Areas we serve
- Related guides
- Why choose our office
- FAQs
Whether Your Child Needs One
- A school register entry is corrected by the Principal before board registration, free, as our school records page sets out.
- A birth certificate is corrected by the registrar on documents, and for a young child that is easy, as our child birth certificate page explains.
- An adoption is carried by the order, which most offices accept, on our adoption page.
- A genuine rename of an older child, where documents already carry the old name and nothing explains a new one, is where publication belongs.
- A written refusal from an office is the other honest reason, and it is worth having on paper before you decide.
Why Rs 1,700
Worth stating plainly because parents sometimes assume the higher fee buys priority, and then wonder why nothing is moving in week three. It does not. The stage-by-stage timings are identical to an adult filing and are on our gazette time and fees page.
What Is Different in the File
| Item | What changes for a minor |
|---|---|
| Affidavit | The guardian is the deponent, with the relationship and the child's age in the opening line |
| Public Notice | Says "my said minor child" and "the said minor shall hereafter be known" |
| Witnesses | Attest the guardian's signature, not the child's |
| CD-Certificate | Signed by the guardian |
| Fee | Rs 1,700 |
| Supporting documents | The child's birth certificate, plus the guardian's identity and address proof |
The child signs nothing at any point in the whole filing. Where an adult template has been adapted by swapping names, that is the failure to look for, and our minor affidavit page covers the correct wording in full.
It Is Permanent, and Public
That is not an argument against filing. Plenty of families have good reasons and are entirely comfortable with the result. It is an argument against filing by default, on somebody's advice, without anyone having explained what a gazette is. Where a school application or a registrar's correction would do the same job, that is worth knowing before spending Rs 1,700 on a permanent public record.
What Happens at Eighteen
The notification stays exactly where it is
It does not lapse, expire or become private. It is a permanent archive entry.
Your child gains the ability to act for themselves
From eighteen they can swear their own affidavit and file their own change without any parental involvement.
Which means your decision is not final
If they disagree with the name you chose, they can change it, at the adult fee, through the ordinary route.
Their records will show the chain
Marksheets in the old name, your gazette, and anything they file later, which is manageable but is a chain.
So keep the whole file for them
The gazette, both newspaper pages and the affidavit, handed over rather than discovered.
And tell them it exists
Which sounds obvious and is skipped remarkably often.
Most children never revisit it. The point is that they can, and knowing that takes some weight off the decision rather than adding to it.
Using It Afterwards
- School first, with a written application and the notification attached, as the register feeds everything downstream.
- Then the birth certificate, if the registrar wants the notification for a change rather than a correction.
- Then Aadhaar, at a Seva Kendra with a parent present.
- A passport last, and only if it is worth reissuing, since a minor passport expires at five years or eighteen.
- Print about five copies of the notification, since several offices keep one.
Note the newspaper pages: the passport office is the one counter that asks for both complete original pages alongside the gazette, which is why you buy two copies of each edition on the day, as our newspaper guide explains.
Central Gazette: the Complete Process and File Format
Our core service: the minor filing exactly as we run it from Lucknow, with guardian wording carried through every document.
Stage 1: The affidavit, sworn by the guardian
Where both parents are available, having both sign is worth the extra stamp paper. It costs one shared trip to the notary and removes a question that otherwise appears weeks later at a counter.
Stage 2: The Public Notice, in two copies
Full names on both sides, never just a surname. Each witness gives signature, full name and address, and both sign both copies at one sitting.
Stage 3: The CD and CD-Certificate
Stage 4: Newspapers, fee, covering letter and dispatch
Publish in two newspapers and buy four copies
One Hindi daily of your district and one English paper, complete original pages with masthead and date.
Pay Rs 1,700 on BharatKosh
The minor head, not the adult one. Check the function head, PAO and DDO on the confirmation screen and print two receipts.
Write the covering letter
To The Controller, Publication Department, Civil Line, Delhi 110054, in the guardian's name with your mobile and email.
Assemble, check and photocopy
Including the child's birth certificate and the guardian's identity and address proof.
Courier it, tracked
One to three days from most UP districts, with no counter to visit.
Search Part IV after 25 to 45 days
By the child's full name, then download and print about five copies.
Ask the Office Before Paying
We lose work by telling parents to ask this, and it is still the right advice. A gazette bought for a problem that a free school application would have solved helps nobody, and the family finds out eventually.
Gazette Fees, Time and the File
| Minor gazette fee | Rs 1,700 on BharatKosh |
| Adult, for comparison | Rs 1,100 |
| Affidavit | Rs 100 to 500 including stamp paper and notary |
| Both parents signing | A little more stamp paper, one trip |
| Newspaper advertisements | A few hundred rupees per paper, plus spare copies |
| Publication window | 25 to 45 days, and the fee does not shorten it |
| Download | Free, permanent, unattested by design |
The envelope in one line: covering letter with your phone and email, guardian's affidavit (notarised), Public Notice typed in two copies with two witnesses on each, CD in MS-Word format with the signed CD-Certificate, both complete newspaper pages, the child's birth certificate, guardian's identity and address proof, photographs and the BharatKosh receipt.
Before You Pay: Check These
- Ask whether a school application, a certificate correction or an adoption order would do instead.
- Confirm you are paying under the minor head at Rs 1,700, not the adult one.
- Have both parents sign the affidavit where both are available.
- Buy two copies of each newspaper edition on the day.
After the Gazette: What Updates Next
School first, then the birth certificate if needed, then Aadhaar, then a passport only if it is worth reissuing. Keep the gazette, both newspaper pages and the affidavit together permanently, and hand the file to your child when they are old enough to hold it, because it is their name history and they will need it at eighteen.
What Other Websites Get Wrong
- Wrong: every child's name change needs a gazette. Right: most are corrections handled free at a school or a registrar.
- Wrong: the higher fee buys faster processing. Right: it is a filing category; the window is identical.
- Wrong: the child signs alongside the guardian. Right: the child signs nothing at any stage.
- Wrong: the notification lapses when the child grows up. Right: it is permanent and stays public.
- Wrong: a parent's gazette binds the child forever. Right: at eighteen they can file their own change.
Areas We Serve in Uttar Pradesh
The file goes to Delhi from wherever you are, so only the newspapers and the notary are local. Across all 75 districts, most often these:
| Rohilkhand and Bundelkhand | Bareilly, Moradabad, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Budaun, Pilibhit, Bijnor, Amroha, Jhansi, Banda, Mahoba, Chitrakoot |
| Awadh and central UP | Lucknow, Kanpur, Unnao, Raebareli, Sitapur, Hardoi, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Amethi, Bahraich |
| Purvanchal and eastern UP | Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ballia, Deoria, Mirzapur, Basti, Ghazipur, Mau, Sonbhadra |
| Western UP and NCR | Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Agra, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Hapur, Firozabad |
Parents in every district get quoted for gazettes their children do not need, which is why the first question we ask is the age rather than the address. Our chamber is at Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Sector 5, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow 226010, with the city guide on our Lucknow page. Call 9540003316 or WhatsApp 9540005002 from any district.
Related Guides on This Site
Whichever counter you reach next, there is a guide for it here:
- minor name change: the timing decision across all a child's records.
- minor affidavit formats: the guardian as deponent throughout.
- school records: the free route that often replaces this one.
- a child's birth certificate: why correcting it young is easiest.
- after adoption: where the order carries it instead.
- a minor passport: check the expiry before paying for anything.
- the gazette guide: the full adult route for comparison.
- gazette time and fees: the stage-by-stage clock.
- the newspaper guide: why you buy four copies.
- the full cost breakdown: government fees and our fees, line by line.
- contact the office: Lucknow office, phone and WhatsApp.
Why We Talk Parents Out of This
A fair share of minor gazette enquiries end with us saying your child does not need one, go to the school this week. That is a free answer to a paid question and it is the correct one more often than the industry admits. Vipin Chauhan, B.Tech LL.B, asks the child's age and which office is asking before quoting anything.
- We check whether publication is needed: and say so when it is not.
- We confirm the minor head is used: so the fee is right the first time.
- We explain what publication means: before a permanent record exists.
- We build the file for the child, not just the parent: so it can be handed over later.
Associate office at Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow, serving all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, Monday to Saturday, 10 AM to 6:30 PM. Call 9540003316 or WhatsApp 9540005002.
Tell Us Who Asked
Uttar Pradesh Name Change
Associate Office: Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Sector 5, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010
Head Office: Metro Pillar 337, Hardev Nagar, Street 1, Shop No 1 (Shri Sham Documentation)
Call: 9540003316
WhatsApp: 9540005002
Email: info@uttarpradeshnamechange.com
Hours: Mon to Sat, 10 AM to 6:30 PM
Send your child's age and which office asked for a gazette. Often the answer is that a free application at the school will do it instead.
Get Call and Name Change Format
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Minor Gazette Name Change: FAQs
What does a minor gazette cost?
Rs 1,700 on BharatKosh, against Rs 1,100 for an adult. The difference is the filing category, not extra work or faster processing.
Does the higher fee speed it up?
No. The publication window is the same twenty-five to forty-five days, and nothing shortens it.
Who signs the documents?
The parent or guardian, on every one of them. The child signs nothing at any point in the filing.
Does my child actually need a gazette?
Often not. School register corrections, birth certificate corrections and adoption orders all work without publication, and most children's cases are one of those.
What should I ask before paying?
Whether the office will accept a school application, a corrected birth certificate or the adoption order instead. For most children's cases the answer is yes.
Does the notification expire when my child turns eighteen?
No. It is a permanent archive entry, freely downloadable and searchable by name for as long as the archive exists.
Can my child change it again later?
Yes. From eighteen they can swear their own affidavit and file their own change at the adult fee, without any parental involvement.
Should both parents sign?
Where both are available, yes. It costs a little more stamp paper and one shared notary visit, and it removes a question that appears later.
What is different from an adult filing?
The deponent, the wording throughout, who the witnesses attest, and the fee. The process, the timeline and the download are identical.
How do I search for it afterwards?
Weekly Gazette, Part IV, a Saturday date range covering your window, searched by the child's full name rather than a surname.
What do I do with it once published?
School first, then the birth certificate if needed, then Aadhaar, and a passport last if it is worth reissuing.
What should I keep?
The gazette, both complete newspaper pages and the affidavit, together and permanently, to hand to your child when they are old enough.
Official Sources
- The Department of Publication's guidelines for change of name, under which a minor's notification is filed by a guardian at a higher fee.
- BharatKosh payment structure, with separate heads for adult and minor publication fees.
- The eGazette archive at egazette.gov.in, where notifications are permanently searchable in the Weekly Gazette, Part IV.
- UPMSP and civil registration correction practice, under which most children's name issues are resolved without publication.
Facts here are checked against these sources and our own filing records. Fees are revised periodically and should be confirmed at payment; the permanence of a published notification is the stable part.
The Short Version
A guardian files it, the fee is Rs 1,700 rather than Rs 1,100, and the higher amount reflects the filing category rather than any extra speed or service. Before paying, ask the office that wanted it whether a school application, a corrected birth certificate or an adoption order would do instead, because most children's name problems are corrections and those routes cost little or nothing. Where publication genuinely applies, the file is the ordinary one with guardian wording throughout and the child signing nothing at any stage. The part worth saying plainly is that a notification is permanent and public: it does not lapse when your child turns eighteen, it stays searchable by name, and it is a statement about somebody who was not old enough to be asked. At eighteen they can file their own change if they want to, which is worth telling them along with handing over the file.