Home Name and School Name Different in Documents in Uttarakhand
For people called one name at home and entered under another at school, whose papers are now split between the two: how a home name gets onto papers, which name to keep, when the stray papers can simply be corrected, and when a Gazette notice with an alias is the clean answer.
Where a home name and school name are both on your papers, keep the name on the papers hardest to change, usually the class 10 certificate. Stray papers in the other name are corrected at their own offices. Where Aadhaar itself is in the other name, a Gazette notice with an alias is commonly needed.
In most hill homes a child has two names. One is what the family calls out across the terraces. The other is what a teacher wrote in a register on the first day. For years nobody minds. Then a home name and school name meet on two papers at one counter. This page explains what to do when your home name and school name are both on your documents.
We prepare Gazette notifications, and this is one of the commonest reasons people come to us. It is also one where many do not need a Gazette. What Aadhaar treats as a major change, and what an alias in a notice costs, are as our Aadhaar and alias pages set them out. For a name that is merely shortened, read short name and full name difference in documents.
What Are Two Names for One Person?
The home name
- Given by the family, often in infancy
- Short, fond and used by the whole village
- Guddu, Pappu, Munni, Bachuli, Nanu
- Never meant for a paper
The school name
- Chosen at admission, sometimes by the teacher
- The name on the class 10 certificate
- Rajendra Singh, Pradeep Kumar, Basanti, Narendra
- The name every later office asks for
These are not two spellings. No rule of sound turns Guddu into Rajendra. A stranger reading two papers sees two people, and has no way of knowing they are one unless a third paper says so.
How Does a Home Name Get Onto Papers?
| Paper | Who gave the name | Why it was the home name |
|---|---|---|
| The ration card | The head of the family | He listed the children as he called them |
| The family register | The village official, from the family | The same |
| The voter roll | A neighbour or an enumerator | The person was away when the list was made |
| An early bank passbook | A parent, opening it for a child | No certificate was asked for then |
| A husband's service or pension record | The husband | He wrote what he called his wife |
| Aadhaar | Whoever took the person to the camp | It was made from one of the papers above |
| The land record | The revenue official, at a mutation | He wrote what the village said |
In every row somebody else gave the name. The home name is the name other people know you by. That is how it reaches papers you never filled yourself.
Which Name Should You Keep?
- Not the one you prefer. The one that is cheapest to keep.
- A class 10 certificate is the hardest ordinary paper to change. Boards have their own rules and time limits.
- A degree, a service record and a registered deed come next.
- A ration card, a voter entry and a bank account are the easiest. Each is corrected at a counter on identity papers.
- So the name on the certificate usually wins, and the easy papers are brought to it.
- A person with no certificates looks to the next hardest: a pension order, a land record, a passport.
Once chosen, the name is used on every form from that day, with the father's name written the same way each time. Read CBSE and ICSE marksheet name correction for how hard the other road is.
What Are the Three Kinds of Split?
A stray paper or two
- Certificates and Aadhaar agree, in the school name
- A ration card or a voter entry has the home name
- Corrected at that office. No Gazette
Aadhaar on the wrong side
- Certificates in the school name, Aadhaar in the home name
- Every office that follows Aadhaar is now on the wrong side too
- Aadhaar is brought over, commonly on a Gazette
A life lived in both
- A job under one name, land and a bank account under the other
- Decades of real papers in each
- A Gazette notice with an alias, and then each office in turn
The first kind is an afternoon's work. The third is a project of months. Most people who write to us are in the second, and do not know it until they look at Aadhaar.
Which Case Is Yours?
| The situation | Route | Gazette? |
|---|---|---|
| The ration card alone has the home name | Correct the ration card on Aadhaar | No |
| The family register has the home name | Correct the family register | No |
| The voter roll has the home name | A correction in the roll | No |
| An old bank account is in the home name | The bank, on Aadhaar. It may ask for more | Sometimes |
| Aadhaar is in the home name, certificates in the school name | An Aadhaar update, as a major change | Commonly yes |
| Land is recorded in the home name | The tehsil, on proof that both are one person | Often asked |
| A wife is in her husband's record by a home name | The record office, on the marriage certificate and her papers | No |
| Real papers of many years in both names | A Gazette notice with an alias | Yes |
A Gazette is plainly needed in one row, and commonly in two more. That is a higher share than on most pages of this site. A different given name is the kind of difference offices will not wave through.
How Do You Bring Your Papers to One Name?
This is the general method. Do the first four steps before you spend anything.
Step 1: Collect every paper you own, and sort it into two heaps
One for each name. Do not leave out the old ones.
Step 2: See which heap holds the papers that are hardest to change
A class 10 certificate, a degree, a service record, a registered deed.
Step 3: Choose that name as the one to keep
Not the one you like best. The one that costs least to keep.
Step 4: Look at Aadhaar
If it is in the name you are keeping, it becomes your proof for the rest. If it is in the other name, it is the first thing to change.
Step 5: Ask the Aadhaar centre which kind of update yours is
A wholly different given name is commonly treated as a major change, which needs a Gazette.
Step 6: Publish a Gazette notice with the other name as an alias, where one is needed
It says in public that both names were yours, and which one you keep.
Step 7: Bring the smaller papers over, one office at a time
The ration card, the voter roll, the bank, the land record, each on Aadhaar and the notice.
Step 8: Keep one paper in the old name, with the notice
For the day an old record turns up that nobody remembered.
What If Aadhaar Is in the Home Name?
- Aadhaar is the paper every other office now follows. A home name there spreads to the bank, PAN and the mobile number.
- As reported, the identity authority sorts name updates into minor and major. A complete change of name, or one that amounts to a different identity, is major.
- A major change needs a Gazette notification. Guddu to Rajendra is that kind of change, however well the village knows they are one man.
- Ask the centre before you prepare anything. It decides the category, on the papers you show.
- The usual limit on name updates is two in a lifetime. Use one, and get the spelling right in English and Hindi both.
- Once Aadhaar is in the school name, it becomes the proof on which the ration card, the bank and the rest are corrected.
Read name change in Aadhaar card, which sets out the kinds of update and the papers for each.
Affidavit, or a Notice With an Alias?
| Point | Affidavit | Gazette notice with an alias |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Your sworn statement before a notary | A notice in the Government's Gazette |
| Who can check it | Only someone who sees the paper | Anyone, on the Government's portal |
| Accepted by | The office that agrees to take it | Offices across the country, for the Gazette of India |
| Good for | One office and a small matter | Aadhaar, a passport, a job, property |
| For two different given names | Often refused | The paper offices ask for |
An affidavit is your word. A notice is a public record. For Raju and Rajendra an office may take your word. For Guddu and Rajendra it usually wants the record. Ask the office first, all the same. Read alias name in a Gazette notification and affidavit vs newspaper vs Gazette.
What About Elders With No School Papers?
- Many older women, and some men, never went to school. They have no certificate to settle which name is the real one.
- Their papers were all made by others: a husband's record, a ration card, a voter list, an Aadhaar camp.
- It is common to find three forms: Bachuli Devi, Basanti Devi and Smt. Basanti, wife of.
- Neither is wrong, and none is more official than the rest.
- Choose the one on the paper that carries money or land: a pension order, a bank account, a land record.
- Bring Aadhaar to that, and then the others. Do it while she is well enough to sign and travel.
Read Kumari, Devi and the husband’s surname, name change in pension and family pension records and Jeevan Pramaan life certificate name mismatch.
What About a Name Given by the In-Laws?
- In some families a bride is given a new first name in her husband's home.
- From then on the village knows her by it, and papers made there carry it.
- Her school certificates and her parents' papers carry the name she was born with.
- A marriage certificate links a woman to her husband, and explains a change of surname. It says nothing about a new given name.
- So this is a change of name like any other. If she wants the new name on her papers, a Gazette notice is the way, with the old name shown.
- If she would rather keep her own name, the papers made in the new one are corrected back, on her certificates.
It is her name, and her choice. Read name change after marriage and is a name change compulsory after marriage.
What About a Parent's Home Name on Your Papers?
- A child's birth certificate and school record name the father and the mother.
- Whoever reported the birth, or admitted the child, gave the parents' names as the family used them.
- So a boy's certificate may read "son of Pappu Singh", while his father's Aadhaar reads "Pradeep Singh Rawat".
- That is corrected in the child's record, on the parent's own identity papers: by the Registrar for a birth certificate, by the board for a school one.
- It is a correction of a parent's name. It is not a change of the child's name, and needs no Gazette for the child.
- Where the parent's own papers are split between two names, the parent's case is settled first.
Read father’s name change and correction, mother’s name correction in a birth certificate and father’s name correction in an Uttarakhand Board marksheet.
How Does the Central Gazette Route Work, With an Alias?
Use this where real papers exist in both names and an office, usually Aadhaar, will not move without a Gazette. It is not needed for a stray ration card.
Step 1: Decide the name to keep, and write the other beside it
The notice will read: known as A alias B, now to be known as A.
Step 2: Collect a paper in each name
The department sees that both were in use. One paper for each is the least.
Step 3: Make the affidavit
State both names, that both are yours, and the one you keep. Sign before a notary.
Step 4: Publish the newspaper notice
In a daily local leading newspaper, with both names. Keep the original newspaper.
Step 5: Type the form and sign the undertaking
Two typed copies of the specimen with the alias, signed with two witnesses, and the undertaking.
Step 6: Prepare the CD, photographs and certificate
The same text on a CD in MS Word, two self-attested photographs with identity proof, and a certificate that both copies match.
Step 7: Pay the charge on BharatKosh
Commonly Rs 1,100 for an adult, with Rs 250 more for an alias. It is not refunded.
Step 8: Send the file yourself, then update Aadhaar first
Send it to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054.
See gazette name change in Uttarakhand and alias name in a Gazette notification.
Which Gazette Should You Use?
The paper that most needs changing is usually Aadhaar, and Aadhaar is central. The Gazette of India is the one to prefer.
Step 1: Ask which office holds the paper in the other name
A bank and Aadhaar are central. The tehsil and the village office are the state's.
Step 2: Prefer the Gazette of India where Aadhaar is to change
Aadhaar is the paper the rest follow.
Step 3: A state notice may serve state offices alone
Ask the tehsil first.
Step 4: Contact the Roorkee press only if a state notice suits you
Take the contact from govtpress.uk.gov.in and ask if a private change of name notice is being accepted.
Step 5: Download the notice
Search gazettes.uk.gov.in and save the PDF.
To weigh the two, read Uttarakhand Gazette vs Gazette of India.
Which Mistakes Do People Make?
| Mistake | What to do |
|---|---|
| Keeping the name you like, not the one on the certificate | Keep the one on the hardest papers |
| Calling it a spelling mistake at the counter | Say plainly that there are two names |
| Changing the certificate to match Aadhaar | Bring Aadhaar to the certificate |
| A Gazette for a stray ration card | Correct the ration card |
| A notice that leaves the other name out | Show it as an alias |
| Relying on an affidavit for Aadhaar | Ask the centre what it needs |
| Using both names on new forms | One name from the day you choose |
| Leaving an elder's papers in three names | Settle them while she can sign |
| Throwing away the papers in the old name | Keep one, with the notice |
A typical case we handle: a young man in Chamoli was selected for a job and failed document verification. His class 10 and class 12 certificates read "Deepak Singh Farswan". His Aadhaar, made when he was nine, read "Sonu". So did his bank account and his mobile number. He had tried twice to update Aadhaar on an affidavit and been refused. He published a notice as "Deepak Singh Farswan alias Sonu", to be known as Deepak Singh Farswan, updated Aadhaar on it, and the bank followed. His ration card was corrected at the supply office, with no need of the notice. 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 stray home name on a ration card, a voter entry or a family register, where Aadhaar and your certificates already agree. Those are corrected at their own offices. We are useful where Aadhaar or a major paper is in the other name and a Gazette notice with an alias is asked for.
Which Areas of Uttarakhand Do We Cover?
All 13 districts: Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat and Pithoragarh. The Gazette file is prepared on WhatsApp. Send one paper in each name and we will tell you which kind of split yours is.
People Also Ask About a Home Name and a School Name
What if my Aadhaar has my nickname?
Bring Aadhaar to your certificates. A Gazette is commonly asked for.
Which name is legal, my home name or my school name?
The one on your papers. Keep the one on the hardest papers.
Is an affidavit enough for two different names?
For one office, sometimes. Rarely for Aadhaar.
What is an alias in a Gazette notification?
The other name you were known by, shown in the notice.
Can I have two names on my documents?
Not without trouble. Bring them to one.
How do I correct a pet name on a ration card?
At the supply office, on Aadhaar.
What are UIDAI's new rules for a name change on Aadhaar?
A revised procedure issued by circular dated 18 September 2026 divides name updates into minor and major, and replaces the exception process of October 2021. Minor edits and major changes need different papers.
Is a change from a nickname to a school name a major change on Aadhaar?
Usually yes. UIDAI treats a full name change, or one that amounts to a different identity, as major, and such a request is liable to rejection without a Gazette notification.
What papers does Aadhaar ask for a first-name change?
UIDAI's own FAQ asks for the Gazette notification for the change of name along with a supporting identity proof in the old name with a photograph. UIDAI verifies the notification too.
What is the fee for an Aadhaar name update?
Rs 75 for a demographic update done on its own at an Aadhaar centre, as UIDAI lists it.
What if I have already used both Aadhaar name updates?
A further change goes through exception handling at the UIDAI regional office, which may ask for a Gazette notification. The helpline is 1947.
Should the address in my Gazette notice match Aadhaar?
UIDAI's FAQ, on the Gazette it asks for, says the address details should match Aadhaar. Give the Aadhaar address in the notice to avoid a query.
Find Out Which Kind of Split Yours Is
Send photos of one paper in each name, and your Aadhaar. We will tell you, free, which name to keep, which papers can simply be corrected, and if a Gazette notification with an alias is needed. Where it is not, we will say so.
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Home Name and School Name Different in Documents: Frequently Asked Questions
What does a home name and school name difference mean?
Is this the same as a short form or a spelling difference?
Which name should I keep?
Do I need a Gazette?
What is a Gazette notice with an alias?
Will an affidavit that both names are mine do?
My Aadhaar is in my home name and my certificates in my school name. What do I do?
My mother has no school papers and two names across her documents. Which is right?
My in-laws gave me a new first name at marriage. Is that a change of name?
My name from the naming ceremony is different from the name I use. Does it matter?
My father is called by his home name on my birth certificate. How is that corrected?
How much more does a notice with an alias cost?
Will the old name vanish from my records?
Can I keep using both names?
What happens to heirs if a person dies with papers in two names?
Do you prepare a notice with an alias?
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Who Wrote and Reviewed This Page?
This page is written by the Documentation Desk Team of UttarakhandNameChange.com, the team that prepares Gazette files for people across Uttarakhand.
It is reviewed by Advocate Vipin Chauhan.
That the identity authority sorts name updates into minor and major, that a complete change of name needs a Gazette, and the limit of two updates are as reported and set out on our Aadhaar page. The added charge for an alias and the comparison of an affidavit with a notice are from our alias page, which draws on the Department of Publication's list of charges. We did not re-read those sources for this page. How a home name reaches papers, which name to keep and the three kinds of split are from our own work. The Aadhaar centre decides which kind of update a case is, and each office decides what it accepts.
Official Sources
- Unique Identification Authority of IndiaKinds of name update in Aadhaar, and their papers.
- Department of Publication: Change of Name and Public NoticesThe change of name guideline, and the charge for an alias.
- e-Gazette, Government of IndiaWhere a notice can be checked by any office.
- Apuni Sarkar, Government of UttarakhandThe family register and state certificates.
- Voters' Service Portal, Election Commission of IndiaCorrecting an entry in the voter roll.
A Home Name and a School Name: The Short Version
Two given names on your papers are read as two people. Sort the papers into two heaps and keep the name on the heap that is hardest to change, usually the certificates. A stray ration card or voter entry is corrected at its own office. Where Aadhaar is in the other name, ask the centre what it needs. A wholly different given name is commonly a major change, on a Gazette notice that shows the other name as an alias. Then use one name on every form.
To find out which kind of split yours is, send one paper in each name on WhatsApp 9540005064, and we will reply in working hours.
Two Names Read as Two People. Choose One, and Link the Other.
Send one paper in each name on WhatsApp. We tell you, free, which to keep and what it needs.