Child Passport Name Mismatch in Uttarakhand: Minor's Passport and Name Change

From the passport office's page on special cases of minors and its list of annexures, and an Indian consulate's guidance on additional documents.

The same consulate's guidance says initials are not allowed in a newborn's name on the birth certificate, and lists the child's birth certificate as the paper for a change in a parent's name on a passport. Ask your own passport office if it applies these.

The first two are corrections, and the Registrar of births is where they are made. The third is the only one that is a change.

Step 1: Take out the child's birth certificate

It is the paper a child's passport is built on. Read the child's name and both parents' names.

Step 2: See that the child's name is in fact entered on it

A certificate issued without a name has to have the name added first.

Step 3: Put both parents' passports beside it

Each parent's name on the certificate should be that parent's name on the passport.

Step 4: Correct the birth certificate first, where a name differs

At the Registrar of births. The passport office will not correct it for you.

Step 5: Decide how the child's name is to be split between the two boxes

Given name and surname, the same way the parents' passports do it where you can.

Step 6: Fill the application from the certificate, letter by letter

And the parents' names from their passports.

Step 7: Sign the parents' declaration the case calls for

Both parents in the ordinary case. Take both parents' passports to the appointment.

Step 8: Read the child's passport the day it comes

Both pages. Then use that spelling at school and on Aadhaar.

• A hospital clerk writes the parents' names as told, on the day of the birth.
• A mother is often entered in her maiden name, or by the name used at home, while her passport carries her married name.
• A father is entered with a short name or an initial.
• The passport office reads these against the parents' own passports.
• Where they differ, the birth certificate is the paper to bring into line, since it is the one that was written least carefully.
• A mother who kept her maiden name everywhere has no mismatch at all. Her passport and the certificate agree.

A marriage certificate links a mother's two surnames. Carry it. Read mother’s name correction in a birth certificate and father’s name change and correction.

• Parents sometimes change a child's name: a different first name, or a surname added or altered.
• A child under 18 cannot apply. The parents or the legal guardian do, and both parents sign.
• The change is published in the Gazette, after an affidavit and a newspaper notice.
• Then the child's records are brought to the new name: the school, Aadhaar, and the birth record as the Registrar allows.
• The passport is re-issued in the new name, on those papers.
• Do this well before a board examination. A class 10 certificate in the old name follows a person for life.

We could not confirm the passport office's list of papers for a minor's change of name. Ask it before publishing. Read minor name change in Uttarakhand and child name change in school records.

Step 1: Confirm that the child's name is in fact being changed

A slip on a birth certificate or a school record is corrected by that office.

Step 2: Both parents decide and sign

A child under 18 cannot apply. The parents or the legal guardian do.

Step 3: Fix the exact new name

As it will stand in the passport's two boxes, on Aadhaar and at school.

Step 4: Make the affidavit and publish the newspaper notice

Signed by both parents before a notary. Publish in a daily local leading newspaper, and keep the original newspaper.

Step 5: Type the form and sign the undertaking

Two typed copies of the specimen, signed by the guardian with two witnesses, and the undertaking.

Step 6: Prepare the CD, photographs and certificate

The same text on a CD in MS Word, photographs with identity proof, and a certificate that both copies match.

Step 7: Pay the charge on BharatKosh

Commonly Rs 1,700 for a minor. It is not refunded.

Step 8: Send the file yourself, then update the birth record, Aadhaar and the passport

Send it to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. Ask the Registrar what it does with the Gazette.

See minor name change in Uttarakhand and name change affidavit for a minor.

A typical case we handle: a couple in Dehradun applied for their daughter's first passport. Her birth certificate named her mother "Rekha Rawat". The mother's passport read "Rekha Negi", her married name. The officer asked how the two were one woman. The father wrote to us for a Gazette. Nobody had changed a name by choice, and none was needed. The mother carried the marriage certificate, and had the birth certificate corrected at the Registrar's office to her present name before the next appointment. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

When you do not need us

For a slip on a birth certificate, a parent's name, a declaration and a re-issue. The Registrar and the passport office settle those. We are useful only where parents are in fact changing a child's name and a Gazette notification is needed.

Which document is needed for a child's passport?

The birth certificate, above all.

Do both parents have to sign for a minor's passport?

In the ordinary case, yes.

What if the mother's name differs on the birth certificate?

Correct the certificate, or carry the marriage certificate.

How long is a minor's passport valid?

Five years or until 18, for a child below 15.

Is a gazette needed for a child passport name mismatch?

No. Only for a real change of the child's name.

Can a child's passport show only the mother's name?

The application permits one parent's name.

Is a birth certificate compulsory for a child born after 1 October 2023?

Yes. Under the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2025, notified in February 2025, a birth certificate issued under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 is the only proof of date of birth accepted for a person born on or after 1 October 2023.

Can Aadhaar be used as proof of a child's date of birth for a passport?

Guides to the 2025 amendment say Aadhaar and e-Aadhaar are no longer accepted as proof of date of birth for a passport. For a child born on or after 1 October 2023, only the birth certificate is.

What can an older child give as proof of date of birth?

For a person born before 1 October 2023, the amended rules still allow other papers, such as a school leaving certificate, a PAN card, a driving licence or a voter card, besides the birth certificate.

Who issues the birth certificate the passport office accepts?

The Registrar of Births and Deaths, the Municipal Corporation, or any other authority empowered under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. A hospital discharge slip is not the birth certificate.

Why was the birth certificate made the only proof for young children?

Reports say that with stricter enforcement of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, birth certificates have become standard and widely available, so the rules treat them as the most reliable proof of date of birth.

Can a child get a passport urgently if a parent has an adverse police report?

Guides say a passport can still be issued to the minor, applied for under Tatkal, but only after approval by the competent authority. Ask the passport office before booking.