Two Names in Different Documents in Uttar Pradesh

This is the classic Uttar Pradesh situation and it has nothing to do with spelling. A child is Guddu at home, and when the school form was filled in 1999 somebody wrote Guddu, because that is what everybody called him. He has been Gaurav on every document since. Or a name chosen at a naming ceremony appears on the birth certificate and nowhere else, while the name the family actually used went onto the Aadhaar. Both names are real, both belong to one person, and neither is a misspelling of the other, which is exactly why the route differs from the transliteration cases on our spelling variation page.

Table of Contents

1. How one person ends up with two names
2. The three sub-cases
3. Choosing which name to keep
4. The alias option, and when it is smarter
5. Central Gazette name change: the full process, step by step
6. Areas we serve
7. Related guides
8. Why choose our office
9. FAQs

How One Person Ends Up With Two Names

Nobody plans this, and understanding how it happens makes the fix less embarrassing to pursue. Four routes account for almost all of it.

• The household name reached the register. A parent or an uncle enrolled the child and gave the name the family used, Guddu, Munna, Pinky, Chhotu, because at that counter it was simply his name.
• The ceremony name stayed on one paper. A name given at a naming ceremony went onto the birth record, while the family used something else from the start.
• A name was changed informally in the family. Common after an astrological consultation, and adopted socially without any document being amended.
• A school changed it for convenience. A teacher entered a shorter or more formal version at admission, and the register was never revisited.

The common thread is that nobody was making a legal decision at the time. That matters when you present the case, because you are not confessing to a deception; you are explaining an ordinary sequence of events that produced two records. Say it plainly and briefly in the affidavit, as our affidavit drafts page sets out, and leave the family history out of it.

The Three Sub-Cases

The middle row is where money is saved, and it is worth testing before assuming the gazette. Where a single old document carries the other name and everything else in your life agrees, the four tests on our correction versus change page can land on the correction side, particularly if your birth certificate supports the name you use. Prepare the file that way, and treat a request for public evidence as the signal to publish rather than spending Rs 1,100 pre-emptively.

Choosing Which Name to Keep

People choose emotionally and then discover the cost. Choose mechanically instead, using one question: which name sits on the documents that are hardest to change?

If your Class 10 marksheet says Gaurav and your Aadhaar says Guddu, keeping Gaurav is almost always right, even though Aadhaar feels more current. The marksheet is the record that takes months and passes through a school, a DIOS office and a Board, while Aadhaar is a visit. Two exceptions worth naming. If you have a passport in one name and international travel or visas ahead, that weighs heavily because reissue plus verification is the longest leg. And if your professional reputation or published work runs under one name, that has real value even though it is not a document.

The Alias Option, and When It Is Smarter

Less known than it should be: a gazette application can carry an alias line for an extra Rs 250, which records that you are also known by the second name rather than replacing one with the other. It suits a specific and common situation.

When the alias is the better buy: where old records you cannot realistically amend carry the other name, an ancestral property entry, an old insurance policy, a pension record, a certificate from an institution that no longer exists. A straight change leaves those stranded and needing an affidavit each time; an alias publishes the link once, permanently. When it is not worth it: where every document can be updated and will be, in which case you are paying to preserve a name you are about to stop using anywhere. Our proforma guide shows where the alias wording sits in the declaration.

Central Gazette Name Change: the Full Process, Step by Step

Stage 1: Prepare and swear the affidavit

1. Fix the exact final name first

   Every letter, including whether a middle name stays, how the surname is spelled, and whether you are taking an alias. This string will be copied into four separate documents and every one must match, so decide it before anything is typed.

2. Buy non-judicial stamp paper

   Of the value your notary advises, since it varies by district and purpose. Do not trust a figure found online; ask the notary who will attest it.

3. Draft the declaration

   Old name, new name, relationship (son, daughter or wife of), full address, and the reason stated in one plain line. For a two-names case, the reason is that the other name was recorded in error or used informally, said once and without elaboration.

4. Sign before the notary, never before

   The signature must be made in the notary's physical presence. Read the whole page once before signing, checking both names letter by letter against your documents.

Stage 2: Publish the newspaper advertisements

1. Book both papers on the same day

   One Hindi daily of your district, Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala or Hindustan, and one English paper. Book the day the affidavit is sworn, because insertions appear on the paper's schedule rather than yours and this is the stage that quietly delays files.

2. Proofread the wording before it prints

   The advertisement must carry the same names, the same spellings and the same address as the affidavit. A single letter differing here is a return cause later, so check the proof rather than trusting the booking clerk.

3. Collect complete original pages

   Not clippings. The Department needs the masthead and the date visible on the page itself, so keep the whole sheet, flat and unfolded.

4. Keep spare copies of both papers

   The passport office asks for the newspaper pages again after publication, which surprises people who assume the gazette consumed them. Buy two copies of each edition on the day.

Stage 3: Type the proforma and prepare the CD

1. Type the proforma in full

   Computer-typed throughout, including the names. Filling typed blanks by pen counts as handwritten and is a return cause. Fields: old name, relationship, occupation, full address, new name and the declaration.

2. Print two copies

   Two typed copies are required, not one. Both are signed and both are witnessed.

3. Get two witnesses to sign both copies at one sitting

   Each witness gives their signature, full name and address. Doing this in a single sitting avoids the commonest small delay, which is chasing a second signature days later.

4. Prepare the CD as typed Word text

   Not a scan, not a PDF image, not a photograph. The Department typesets your published notification from this file, so it must contain real, selectable text. The CD version omits witness details and carries your old name typed where a signature would be.

5. Open the CD on a different computer

   Confirm the text can be selected and edited. This is the single most common technical failure and the only one you cannot see from the outside, so verify it rather than trusting the shop that burned it.

6. Sign the CD declaration

   A short signed statement that the CD contents match the hard copy, printed and signed in your old name.

Stage 4: Pay the government fee

1. Pay on BharatKosh before dispatch

   The printed receipt is an enclosure inside the envelope, so payment comes before the envelope is sealed rather than after.

2. Confirm the head on the confirmation screen

   Function head, PAO and DDO, read before the transaction rather than after. A payment made under the wrong head has not reached the office processing your file, and recovering it is slower than paying again correctly.

3. Pay the correct amount

   Rs 1,100 for an adult, Rs 1,700 for a minor filed through a guardian, plus Rs 250 if you are taking an alias line.

4. Print the receipt

   Two copies: one for the envelope, one for your own file.

Stage 5: Assemble and dispatch the file

1. Write the covering letter

   A single page stating what you are applying for, listing the enclosures, and carrying your phone number and email address. Without contact details the Department cannot query your file, so it waits instead of moving.

2. Assemble the enclosures in order

   Affidavit, both original newspaper pages, both proforma copies, the CD with its signed declaration, photo identity proof, address proof, photographs and the BharatKosh receipt.

3. Run a ten-minute check before sealing

   CD opens as text, proforma typed and doubly witnessed, names identical across all four documents, newspapers whole, payment head correct, photograph recent, address consistent, contact details present.

4. Photocopy everything

   Keep a complete set at home. If the file is returned, you rebuild from copies rather than from memory.

5. Courier to Civil Lines

   Tracked dispatch to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. One to three days in transit depending on your district. There is no counter to visit and no benefit to travelling.

Stage 6: Publication, download and the counters

1. Wait through the publication window

   Twenty-five to forty-five days from the Department receiving a complete file. There is no application number and no tracker, so do not send a duplicate application while waiting.

2. Search Part IV of the Weekly Gazette

   On the archive, choosing Weekly Gazette rather than Extraordinary, Part IV, and a Saturday date range covering your window. Results list issues rather than people, so download the PDF and search inside it.

3. Download the whole issue

   Save the complete PDF unedited. The masthead, issue number and date are what make your entry verifiable, and a cropped screenshot loses all of it.

4. Note the issue number and date

   Write them somewhere separate from the PDF. Those two details locate your notification for the rest of your life.

5. Print about three copies

   The Aadhaar Seva Kendra, your bank and your passport file will each keep one, and none of them hands it back. No attestation is needed anywhere, because the download is the document.

6. Update the counters in dependency order

   Aadhaar first, then PAN, then bank and employer together, then the passport with both newspaper pages, then the Tehsil certificate family, education records, driving licence, voter ID, and finally insurance folios and property.

Gazette Fees, Time and the File

The Department's checklist in one line: covering letter with phone and email, affidavit (notarised), newspapers (both, original, whole pages), proforma (typed, two copies, applicant plus two witnesses), CD with signed declaration, photo ID, address proof, photographs, BharatKosh receipt.

Before You Apply: Check These

• Decide the final name and whether you want an alias before any document is typed, because the string is copied four times.
• Open the CD on a second computer, since a scan instead of typed text is the commonest return cause and the only invisible one.
• Keep spare newspaper copies, because the passport office asks for them again after publication.
• Confirm the BharatKosh head on the confirmation screen rather than after paying.

After the Gazette: What Updates Next

Aadhaar at the Seva Kendra first, then PAN online, then bank and employer together, then the passport with both newspaper pages in hand, then caste, domicile, income and EWS certificates from the Tehsil, education records through their own chains, driving licence and voter ID, and finally insurance policies, mutual fund folios and property records. Two that people forget for years: the employer service record with PF nomination, and any old policy or folio in the other name, which is precisely the situation an alias line protects against.

What Other Websites Get Wrong

• Wrong: two names is the same as a spelling difference. Right: different names are a change, and spellings are a correction.
• Wrong: keep the name you like. Right: keep the one on the documents that take months to amend.
• Wrong: an alias is unnecessary. Right: it is the cheapest way to keep old, unamendable records explainable.
• Wrong: a household name on a school record cannot be fixed. Right: it is an ordinary case, and where every other document agrees it may even run as a correction.
• Wrong: publish and the documents follow. Right: every counter runs its own process, and the gazette is only the evidence.

Areas We Serve in Uttar Pradesh

Household names reaching school registers is a state-wide pattern, not a district one, so these cases arrive from everywhere. We file them across all 75 districts, most often these:

Alias applications come disproportionately from families holding ancestral property, because a revenue entry in an older name is exactly the record that cannot be amended easily. 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

Every guide here is part of one connected map, so whichever counter your case lands at next, the page for it already exists:

• correction versus change: the four tests that classify your case.
• transliteration mismatch: the spelling problem this page is not about.
• affidavit drafts: including the one-and-the-same-person version.
• the spelling correction pillar: the router this page sits under.
• the proforma format: where the alias wording sits.
• documents for the gazette file: the eight items and what each prevents.
• gazette rejection reasons: stoppers, slowers and the pre-flight check.
• UP Board marksheet correction: where the other name usually sits.
• Aadhaar name update: the first counter after publication.
• the full cost breakdown: government fees and service fees, line by line.
• contact the office: Lucknow office, phone and WhatsApp.
• does a correction need a gazette?: no, and the one question to ask when somebody insists.

Why the Alias Question Comes Up on Our First Call

Most offices sell a straight name change because it is the standard product. We ask first whether any record exists that you will never be able to amend, because if one does, Rs 250 spent now saves an affidavit every few years for the rest of your life. Vipin Chauhan, B.Tech LL.B, has filed both kinds for five years.

• We test for a correction before assuming a change: where one old document stands alone against a settled record, the cheaper route may still work.
• We choose the name mechanically: weighted by which documents take months rather than which name you prefer today.
• We raise the alias early: ancestral property, old policies and defunct institutions are exactly what it exists for.
• We run the file check ourselves: CD opened on a second machine, names read aloud across all four documents, payment head confirmed on screen.

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.

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Two Names in Different Documents: FAQs