Name Change Procedure in Uttar Pradesh (2026) Guide

Video guide

Watch: Name Change Procedure in Uttar Pradesh

A quick walkthrough of the affidavit, newspaper and gazette steps, and how the Uttar Pradesh name correction service works.

What this video covers

Why there is no citizen gazette counter inside Uttar Pradesh, and where the file actually goes
The affidavit: what it must say, and what the stamp duty in UP really is
The newspaper public notice, and why one advertisement is what the Department asks for
What goes into the gazette file, and how the notice is downloaded once published

Published 10 December 2021 by YourDoorstep. Runtime 7 minutes 19 seconds. Spoken in Hindi.

In this video, the YourDoorstep team explains the full name change procedure in Uttar Pradesh: which gazette to choose, the documents you need, the real fees, and how we handle the whole process at your doorstep.

Changing your name is a big step. Maybe you just got married, you are fixing a spelling mistake in your school records, or you want a fresh start after a divorce. Whatever the reason, the name change procedure in Uttar Pradesh follows a clear legal path once you cut through the conflicting advice online. This guide breaks down every step in plain words, from the affidavit to the final gazette, and shows how to get it done from home, whether you live in Lucknow, Kanpur, Noida, Varanasi or Gorakhpur.

Quick Answer

To change your name in Uttar Pradesh, follow three steps. Make a notarised affidavit with your old and new name, publish one advertisement in a daily newspaper, English or Hindi, under a Public Notice heading, then file for a gazette notification. For all-India validity, UP residents use the Central Gazette, where the fee is Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors. The Department's own published wording is that roughly a month is needed, and you can do the whole thing from home.

Definition: A gazette notification is an official notice published in the Government Gazette that turns your name change into a public, legally recognised record, accepted by the passport office, banks, UIDAI, UP Board and government departments across India.

Uttar Pradesh name change at a glance

Steps: Affidavit → one newspaper public notice → gazette
Central Gazette fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor (BharatKosh)
Time: Roughly a month, per the Department's own wording
Newspapers: One daily, English or Hindi. Not two
Where to file: Dept. of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054
Gazette download: egazette.gov.in, Part IV (digital since 2015)

Key takeaways

The process has three steps: notarised affidavit, newspaper ad, then gazette notification.
For personal name changes, UP residents use the Central Gazette (Gazette of India), not a UP-only online portal.
The Central Gazette is valid all over India and abroad, so it works for passport, PAN, Aadhaar, banks and jobs.
Central Gazette fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor, paid online on BharatKosh.
The Central Gazette office is in Delhi (Civil Lines). You do not need to travel there.
The UP state gazette exists, printed by the Directorate of Printing & Stationery at Prayagraj, Lucknow, Rampur and Varanasi, but it has no citizen route for a name change: no form, no fee, no counter. Its own archive's "Private" category returns zero records.
Newspapers needed: one, English or Hindi, under a Public Notice heading. "Two papers, one of each" is an agent convention, not the rule.
Affidavit stamp duty in UP is Rs 10 under Schedule I-B, Article 4.
For a UP Board certificate the gazette is not enough, the Allahabad High Court held in February 2025 that a civil court decree is required, and the Board's own three-year limit applies.
If the Department raises an objection you have six months to answer it, or the case is cancelled and you pay again.
Since 1 October 2015, the gazette is digital only, downloaded free from egazette.gov.in.

Clearing the confusion

Does Uttar Pradesh Have Its Own Gazette Portal for Name Change?

No. And we can show you exactly where we looked.

Name change procedure in Uttar Pradesh, affidavit, newspaper public notice and Central Gazette filing, handled without an office visit

Uttar Pradesh does publish its own gazette. It is produced by the Directorate of Printing & Stationery, Uttar Pradesh (मुद्रण एवं लेखन सामग्री निदेशालय), whose headquarters is at 14/12 Sarojini Naidu Marg, Civil Lines, Prayagraj–211001 (0532-2623371), with government presses at Prayagraj, Aishbagh in Lucknow, Rampur and Ramnagar in Varanasi, plus a branch press at 96 M.G. Marg, Hazratganj, Lucknow–226001. Its gazette archive is public at dpsup.up.gov.in and you can search it by number, date, department and category without logging in.

What that archive does not contain is you. We went through it: the department's own Citizen Charter describes its purpose as printing for government departments, and its only public-facing counter is a sales counter where citizens buy government publications. There is no application form, no fee schedule and no submission counter for a private name-change notice anywhere on the site. The gazette search even has a category filter with a "Private" option, selecting it returns zero records. The department's Government Orders list, Circulars list, FAQs page and "Customer To Note" page are all empty or say "Content Available Soon".

We also read the gazettes themselves. Part 1 of the UP Sarkari Gazette is headed "विज्ञप्ति" and its description mentions "वैयक्तिक नोटिस", personal notices, which is exactly the phrase agent sites point at. Open it and what you find are government servants: promotions, postings, transfers, leave, service-record corrections issued "आज्ञा से" by an Additional Chief Secretary. Across recent issues we searched, the only naam parivartan entry we could locate anywhere was a Revenue Department notification renaming a village in Tehsil Govardhan, District Mathura, under section 6(2) of the UP Revenue Code 2006.

So where does the "UP gazette portal" come from? From agent websites. Four of the domains they cite, rajpatra.up.gov.in, upgovernmentpress.up.gov.in, printing.up.gov.in and upgazette.up.gov.in, do not exist at all; they fail at DNS. And the "apply through the Panchayati Raj Department" advice traces to that department's e-District services, which are a copy of the Kutumb (family) register and rural birth and death certificates. Those are certified extracts, not a name change.

For a personal name change, the documented route in India is the Central Gazette, the Gazette of India, Part IV, published by the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi–110054. That department publishes a whole guidance category for it, in Hindi and English, with proformas and a fee schedule. That is what the passport office, UIDAI and banks accept.

Choose the right route

State Gazette or Central Gazette for Uttar Pradesh?

Strictly speaking there is no choice to make. Here is why, laid out side by side.

Point	UP State Gazette (Sarkari Gazette, Uttar Pradesh)	Central Gazette of India, Part IV
Produced by	Directorate of Printing & Stationery, UP, HQ at Civil Lines, Prayagraj; presses at Prayagraj, Lucknow, Rampur, Varanasi	Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054
Open to a private individual?	No. No form, no fee schedule, no submission counter is published. The "Private" category in its own archive returns zero records	Yes. Any Indian citizen may apply, in person or by post or courier
Government fee	None published for citizens, any figure you are quoted is invented	Rs 1,100 for an adult per the published guidelines, paid on BharatKosh (NTRP)
What it actually carries	Government orders, appointments, transfers, promotions, leave, departmental notifications; service-record name corrections for government servants only	Individual name change, public notice, change of religion, adoption
Accepted by	State departments, for their own records	Passport, PAN, Aadhaar, banks, PSU employers, embassies, across India and abroad
Website	dpsup.up.gov.in (archive only, no application route)	deptpub.gov.in for guidelines, egazette.gov.in to download your notice

The honest answer: a UP resident who wants a legal name change uses the Central Gazette. There is no state alternative to weigh against it. Any page quoting a "UP State Gazette fee" of Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 has made it up, no Uttar Pradesh government source publishes one.

The "UP gazette office address" problem

Search for a gazette office in Uttar Pradesh and you will be handed several addresses. Most of them are wrong, and one of them was wrong on this very page until we checked it properly.

"Government Press, Minto Road, near Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001" does not exist. Minto Road is in New Delhi, it is the location of the Government of India Press, Minto Road, Delhi-110002. A single address that combines "Minto Road" with "Hazratganj, Lucknow" is two cities stitched together, and it has been copied across this niche for years. We had it on this page. We removed it.

Here is what the Directorate of Printing & Stationery actually publishes in its own telephone directory:

Office	Where	Phone
Directorate (headquarters)	14/12 Sarojini Naidu Marg, Civil Lines, Prayagraj-211001	0532-2623371
Government Press, Prayagraj	Prayagraj	0532-2623664
Government Press, Lucknow	Aishbagh, Lucknow (established 1949)	0522-2662058 / 0522-2662556
Government Branch Press / Camp Office	96 M.G. Marg, opposite Raj Bhawan Gate No. 1, Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001	0522-2238828
Government Press, Rampur	Bagh Hazara, Rampur	0595-2350474
Government Press, Varanasi	Ramnagar, Varanasi	05412-269338

What this video covers

The address people search for as the "gazette office in Uttar Pradesh", and what is actually at it
The Directorate of Printing & Stationery and its presses: what they print, and who for
The correct Department of Publication address in Delhi, and its public dealing hours
How a file reaches it from anywhere in UP without anyone travelling

Published 2 May 2024 by YourDoorstep. Runtime 5 minutes 24 seconds. Spoken in Hindi.

These come from the Directorate's own telephone directory and "Reach Us" pages at dpsup.up.gov.in, checked in August 2026. Numbers and rooms change, and note that the Varanasi press at Ramnagar is listed on the 05412 exchange rather than Varanasi's 0542, Ramnagar sits across the river on the Chandauli side. Call before you travel. Two wording points are also worth getting right, because they are the tell of a copied page. "Rajkiya Mudranalaya" is the name of each individual Government Press, not of the Directorate. And the Prayagraj address is the Directorate's headquarters, not a branch of a Lucknow office.

None of these is a place you file a name change. They print the state's gazette. Your file goes to The Controller of Publication, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, behind the old Delhi Vidhan Sabha, near Vidhan Sabha Metro Station.

Good news

Change Your Name Without Going Anywhere

Yes. A legal name change in India runs on paperwork, not office visits. There is no single name change office you must line up at in UP.

The only place a Central Gazette file must physically reach is the Department of Publication in Delhi. If you live in Noida or Ghaziabad, that office is almost next door. If you live in Varanasi, Prayagraj or Gorakhpur, it is far, and travelling makes no sense. Either way, you do not need to go. Our own office is in Delhi. You share your details from your home in UP, we prepare the affidavit, book the newspaper advertisement, pay the government fee, and hand your file to the Gazette office in Delhi ourselves. Once it is published, we send you the gazette PDF.

The process

The 3 Legal Steps

Every legal name change through the Central Gazette follows the same three steps, in this order.

1

Make the affidavit

A short statement on stamp paper with your old name, new name, address, father's or husband's name and the reason, signed before a notary.

2

Publish the notice

One advertisement in a daily newspaper, English or Hindi, under a Public Notice heading. Anyone who objects gets their chance here.

3

Get the gazette

The file goes to the Department of Publication, Delhi. Your notice is printed in Part IV of the Gazette of India, and you download the PDF.

Infographic: name change procedure in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court rule that a gazette is not enough for a UP Board marksheet, the absence of any UP gazette portal, the three steps of affidavit, one newspaper public notice and Gazette of India Part IV, the published fee schedule from Rs 1,100 to Rs 5,100, the 30-day, six-month and three-year deadlines, and four common myths corrected — The Uttar Pradesh name change process on one page: the three steps, every published fee, the three deadlines that decide your case, and the four claims other pages get wrong.

Step 1: Make the name change affidavit

An affidavit is a short sworn statement on non-judicial stamp paper. It lists your old name, new name, address, father's or husband's name, and the reason for the change. You sign it in front of a notary.

The stamp duty in Uttar Pradesh is Rs 10. Schedule I-B of the Indian Stamp Act as applicable in UP is published on the state's own Stamp & Registration portal, and Article 4, "Affidavit, including an affirmation or declaration", reads ten rupees. Article 42, the notarial act itself, is another ten rupees. Everything above that is over-stamping: legally harmless, and not required. So when a page tells you the stamp paper "costs Rs 20, or Rs 100, or Rs 10 to Rs 100 depending on the state", it is describing what a vendor happened to sell, not what the law asks for.

E-stamps are available across UP. The Stamp & Registration Department's portal at igrsup.gov.in links directly to SHCIL for e-stamp verification and self-printing, and publishes a district-and-tehsil-wise list of Authorised Collection Centres, a live PDF, updated in June 2025, covering Agra, Aligarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Amethi, Amroha, Auraiya, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Baghpat, Bahraich, Ballia, Banda, Barabanki and on through the state. Any listed ACC can issue you an e-stamp.

For the notary, there is no useful online directory, and we would rather say so than send you to a dead link. The Government of India's notary portal states that its online services are for Central Notaries only, and the india.gov.in lookup requires the notary's registration number before it will show you anything. Notaries in UP are appointed by both the Central and the State Government, and in practice you find one at the district court, tehsil or collectorate. Ask to see the Certificate of Practice and registration number.

One thing worth knowing before you spend: the document the gazette file actually turns on is the Department's own proforma, which is headed "Undertaking / Affidavit" and is signed by you in your old name before two witnesses. A separate Magistrate-attested affidavit is required in one specific case, where you adopt a surname different from your father's or mother's, or add a surname you never had. What the guidelines do not prescribe is the notarised affidavit on Rs 10 stamp paper that banks, UIDAI, RTOs, schools and employers ask for. Make one anyway, because they will ask, but know it is a customary evidentiary document with no statutory format, not something the Department demands.

Step 2: Publish the change in a newspaper

One advertisement, one newspaper, English or Hindi. It must appear under a Public Notice heading, the guidelines say so explicitly and add that it "should not be advertised in Change of Name heading", and it must carry your old name, new name, father's name and full residential address. You send the newspaper in original. See the newspaper section for which papers work in UP and when a second advertisement is still worth taking.

Step 3: Get the gazette notification

The file goes to The Controller of Publication, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, behind the old Delhi Vidhan Sabha, near Vidhan Sabha Metro Station. It includes the undertaking, the original newspaper, the prescribed proforma in two typed copies signed in your old name with the full details of two witnesses, a CD with the print matter, a certificate signed by you that hard copy and soft copy match, two self-attested passport photos, self-attested photo ID for you and for each witness, and a request letter with the fee receipt.

Public dealing hours are 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on working days, closed Saturdays, Sundays and gazetted holidays. Your notice is printed in Part IV of the Gazette of India and you download the PDF yourself from egazette.gov.in, the guidelines say it in as many words: "The applicant is requested to download his/her gazette from the website www.egazette.gov.in." No physical copy is posted to you. The PDF is your legal proof and needs no stamp or attestation.

Three rules that catch people out. The fee is payable only through BharatKosh (NTRP), no demand draft, cheque, cash or postal order for a Part IV name change. No document in the file may be older than one year. And the Department will not accept your file from anyone else: "No other channel of submission is permissible viz. Lawyer, Agents, Touts, Friends, Relatives carrying authority letter etc."

A quick note on order: some sites list the newspaper ad before the affidavit. In real practice the affidavit comes first, because both the newspaper ad and the gazette file copy their details from it.

Checklist

Documents Required for Name Change in Uttar Pradesh

This list comes from the Department of Publication's own guidelines, not from what agents usually ask for. Missing or mismatched papers are the top reason files get held up.

Document	Needed?	Notes
Undertaking in the Department's proforma	Yes	In original, signed in your old name. This is the document the guidelines actually name
Original newspaper carrying the notice	Yes	Full original page. One paper is enough, English or Hindi, under a Public Notice heading
Prescribed proforma, two typed copies	Yes	Signed in the old name, with the full details of two witnesses
CD with the print matter	Yes	In MS Word, without the witness portion
CD certificate	Yes	Signed by you, declaring hard copy and soft copy match
Two passport-size photos	Yes	Self-attested
Photo ID for the old name	Yes	Passport, Aadhaar, ration card, voter card, driving licence, government I-card, PAN, birth certificate or 10th/12th certificate
Address proof	Yes	Same list, plus an electricity, water, telephone or gas bill not older than 3 months, or a rent agreement with the landlord's PAN copy
Self-attested photo ID of each witness	Yes	Listed separately in the guidelines, commonly forgotten
Request letter to the Controller of Publication	Yes	Typed on A4, with the BharatKosh fee receipt
Notarised affidavit on stamp paper	Not required by the Department	The Department's own proforma is headed "Undertaking / Affidavit"; a separate notarised affidavit is not on its list. Banks, UIDAI, RTOs and schools will ask for one, so make it anyway
Marriage certificate	If applicable	For a surname change after marriage
Divorce decree or husband's NOC	If applicable	Required to go back to a maiden surname, see the special cases below
Magistrate-attested affidavit	If applicable	Where you adopt a surname different from your father's or mother's, or add a surname where you had none
Deed for change of name	Central government employees, and applicants living abroad	A separate proforma under a Ministry of Home Affairs O.M. for central staff; an applicant abroad submits the deed attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission, in original

The one-year clock: the guidelines state plainly that "the documents must not be older than one year." Date the affidavit, take the advertisement and post the file inside that window.

No agent can hand it in for you. The guidelines exclude every proxy by name: "No other channel of submission is permissible viz. Lawyer, Agents, Touts, Friends, Relatives carrying authority letter etc." A consultant can prepare and courier your file, that is legitimate and it is what we do. Nobody can walk it up to the counter as your representative.

Real costs

Name Change Fees in Uttar Pradesh (2026)

Two costs sit inside a name change: the government publication fee, and the side costs, stamp, notary, newspaper, that vary. Here is every published figure, with the caveat the Department itself prints.

Government fee, Gazette of India Part IV

Case	Published fee
Adult (major), resident in India	Rs 1,100
Adult, Indian living abroad	Rs 3,500
Minor, in India	Rs 1,700
Minor, applicant living abroad	Rs 5,100
Adopting a name of another religion without converting	Rs 1,100 + Rs 250 = Rs 1,350
Actual change of religion (conversion)	Rs 1,700
Public notice / name correction	Rs 1,400
Change of name and gender	Rs 1,400
Adoption of a child	Rs 1,200 w.e.f. 01/10/2018 in the Department's Adoption of Child guideline (an older sheet still shows Rs 1,700)

The caveat other pages leave out. Most of these amounts are stamped in the Department's guidelines as applying "w.e.f. 01/04/2016 to 31/03/2017", and the Department adds in its own words that the fee "varies each financial year and varies from case to case." The Department does revise them without reissuing every sheet: its Adoption of Child guideline gives Rs 1,200 with effect from 01/10/2018, while an older adoption sheet still shows Rs 1,700 for 2016-17. So treat the table as the published rates, not as a 2026 price list, and confirm the current amount on the Change of Name desk, 011-23813761, before you pay. An underpaid file comes back as an objection, and then the six-month clock starts.

The other costs

Item	Cost in Uttar Pradesh
Stamp duty on the affidavit	Rs 10, Schedule I-B, Article 4, as applicable in UP (plus Rs 10 for the notarial act, Article 42)
Notary charges	Varies. We could find no current UP fee notification, so treat any quoted figure as the notary's own
Newspaper advertisement	Varies by paper and city. One paper is what the gazette requires
Courier to Delhi	Ordinary Speed Post or courier rates from your district
Aadhaar name update afterwards	Rs 75 at an enrolment centre, per UIDAI's current charge sheet
Degree name correction, MJP Rohilkhand University	Rs 200, the only UP university that publishes a name-correction fee we could verify

Three fee myths, corrected

"There is a UP gazette portal fee of Rs 500 to Rs 1,500." No. No Uttar Pradesh government source publishes any citizen gazette fee, because there is no citizen route. Every version of that figure traces to a commercial agent site.

"NRIs pay Rs 7,500 to Rs 9,000." No. The published fee for an Indian living abroad is Rs 3,500 for an adult and Rs 5,100 for a minor. The higher numbers are an agent's service price presented as a government charge.

"Rs 250 extra per additional name or alias." No. The Rs 250 is real but means something else entirely: a one-time add-on where you adopt a name or surname associated with another religion while remaining in your own religion, Rs 1,100 + Rs 250 = Rs 1,350. No official schedule contains a per-alias charge.

Payment: BharatKosh (NTRP) at bharatkosh.gov.in only, with the receipt in the file. Since 01/10/2018 the guidelines allow no other route for a Part IV name change. Do not hand cash to anyone who calls it a "government charge."

Public notice

Newspaper Publication in Uttar Pradesh

How many papers do you actually need? Fewer than you have been told.

Almost every page in this niche tells you to publish in two newspapers, one Hindi and one English. The Department of Publication's own guidelines say the opposite, in plain words: "One recent advertisement Only in Daily Local National Newspaper (In Original), Either in English newspaper or in Hindi Newspaper and matter should be in Hindi or English language only." The adult name-change guideline repeats it: the change "should be advertised in one of the daily local leading newspapers."

One newspaper is enough for the gazette. One advertisement, English or Hindi, submitted in original. Not two, and not one of each. And it must run under a Public Notice heading, the guidelines specifically say it must not go under a "Change of Name" heading, which is exactly where a busy classifieds desk will put it if you do not insist.

There is one good reason to take a second anyway. If a passport re-issue is your real goal, the Passport Seva booklet asks for "clippings of two local newspapers or the Gazette notification of the concerned State Government, as the case may be", alternatives, not a pair. Note the wording: it says State Government. In practice what a UP resident holds is a Central Gazette Part IV notification, because the state offers no citizen route at all, so ask at your Passport Seva Kendra before the appointment rather than after, and carry the newspaper originals as a backstop. Some people still take a second advertisement as a backstop while the gazette is in process. That is a choice, not a legal requirement, and nobody should bill you for it as though the government demanded it.

Which papers work in Uttar Pradesh

UP has the largest print market in India, and the requirement is simply a "daily local leading newspaper", there is no government-approved list, so anyone telling you a particular paper is "the approved one" is selling something. For scale: the Central Bureau of Communication's empanelment list for Uttar Pradesh, as on 12 August 2021, ran to 515 publications in Hindi, Urdu and English, with editions from Agra, Aligarh and Ayodhya through Ballia, Bareilly, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and beyond. One caveat if you go looking at that panel: only two of its English titles are on it, and both are weeklies, so an English advertisement will normally come from a daily that is not on the state panel at all, which is fine, because the Department asks for a daily local leading newspaper and keeps no approved list. Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala and Hindustan are the Hindi dailies most UP readers will name; Aj carries a Bareilly edition and Roznama Rashtriya Sahara publishes from Gorakhpur and Kanpur in Urdu.

One trap in that list. Urdu papers are properly empanelled and widely read across UP, but the Department requires the advertisement matter to be in Hindi or English only. A notice placed in Urdu will not satisfy the Central Gazette, however legitimate the paper.

Keep the complete original page with the masthead and date clearly readable. The Department asks for the newspaper in original, so a photocopy or a cutting with the date trimmed off is what gets a file objected to. Buy two or three copies of that day's paper at the stand, back copies get hard to find once the day passes.

Next step

After the Gazette: Update Your Records

The gazette PDF is your proof. This is the final and often slowest part, and in Uttar Pradesh one of these records does not accept the gazette at all, so read the board row carefully.

Record	What actually happens
Aadhaar	Demographic update, Rs 75 at an enrolment centre. UIDAI allows a name update twice on ordinary documents; past that limit the gazette notification is precisely what unlocks it, through Regional Office exception handling with an old-name photo ID and your latest EID slip. Helpline 1947
PAN	Name correction through Protean (NSDL) or UTIITSL
Passport	Re-issue at your PSK. For a name change other than marriage the booklet asks for two newspaper clippings or the gazette notification of the concerned State Government, plus at least two public or school documents already in the new name. Not available under Tatkaal. After marriage, an attested marriage certificate or a joint photo declaration (Annexure J) is enough, no gazette needed
UP Board (UPMSP) certificates	The gazette is not enough. The Allahabad High Court held in February 2025 that a civil court decree is required, see the section below. Applications also run through UPMSP's own portals, samadhan.upmsp.edu.in and janhit.upmsp.edu.in, with a 30-day disposal timeline for a corrected certificate or marksheet under the UP Janhit Guarantee Act 2011
University degrees	Each university runs its own procedure. MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly publishes a fee: Rs 200 for "Correction in Name of Students / Mother Name / Father name", form collected at the cash counter. Lucknow University, AKTU, CCS University Meerut, DDU Gorakhpur, BHU and AMU publish no name-correction form or fee online, apply to the Controller of Examinations. Note the cascade: a university will usually want your 10th certificate, which is the UP Board document above
Driving licence and RC	Take the gazette to your RTO. We could not reach a single official Parivahan, Sarathi or UP Transport page to verify whether a name change can be done online, so we are not going to state one either way, and neither should any page that has not checked
Bank accounts	Branch visit with the gazette, affidavit and ID. Requirements are set by each bank, not by a published RBI rule
Voter ID	Form 8 for correction
Employer records	HR, with the gazette copy. Central government employees have their own deed proforma

Keep several printouts of the gazette, because every office will want its own copy. There is no attestation to get, the downloaded PDF is the legal document.

What UP e-District can and cannot do. The state's e-District portal carries a few dozen services across a handful of departments, caste, income, domicile, haisiyat, khatauni copies, pensions, rural birth and death certificates, family register extracts. Name change is not one of them, and neither is a gazette service. It is where you get the domicile or income certificate you may need alongside a name change, not where you apply for one.

Every document

Name Change & Correction We Handle on Every Document

Once your gazette is ready, we help you carry the new name onto every record. From ID proofs to school and property papers, here are the documents we handle name change and correction on for Uttar Pradesh residents.

🪪

Aadhaar Card

Name change or spelling correction on Aadhaar with the gazette as proof.

💳

PAN Card

Name correction through the NSDL or UTIITSL route.

🛂

Passport

Re-issue with your new name using the gazette and newspaper ads.

🗳️

Voter ID

Correction of the name entry through Form 8.

📜

Birth Certificate

Name or spelling correction through the local Registrar (RBD Act route).

🎓

Education Documents

Name change on marksheets, degrees and UP Board / university records.

🏦

Bank & Records

Update your name across bank accounts, passbooks and KYC.

🚗

Driving Licence & RC

Name correction at the RTO with the gazette copy.

🏠

Property & Land Papers

Name updates on property, rent and related documents.

🛡️

LIC & Insurance

Name change on policies and insurance records.

🍚

Ration Card & Gas

Correction on ration card and gas connection records.

💼

Service & Employer Records

Name change on employee, PF and service documents.

Need a document not listed here? Call 9540005026 and we will confirm.

Expert insights

Three Things the Experienced Know

🔤

Match your name letter for letter

The single reason files fail is a spelling gap between the affidavit, the newspaper ad and the ID proof. Pick one exact spelling, including initials and spacing, and use it on every paper. If Aadhaar says "Kumar" and the affidavit says "Kumaar", fix it first.

🎯

There is no cheaper local option to weigh

People assume there is a small state route for local records and a big central one for everything else, and price the two against each other. In Uttar Pradesh there is no state route open to a private individual at all, so the only question is whether you need a gazette or a court decree, and for a UP Board certificate, it is the decree.

🗂️

Keep more copies than you think

The Department of Publication does not return your file. Keep your own full newspaper pages and extra printouts of the gazette PDF, because Aadhaar, PAN, the bank and the passport office each want a copy.

Honest view

Benefits & Drawbacks of the Gazette Route

✔ Accepted everywhere

A Central Gazette notification is treated as final proof by UIDAI, the passport office, banks, UP Board and universities, so you rarely face follow-up questions.

✔ Permanent and easy to reprint

Since 1 October 2015 the gazette is digital. If you lose your copy, you download it again free from egazette.gov.in, with no office visit.

✔ Done from anywhere in UP

The whole process runs on paperwork, so a resident of Gorakhpur or Varanasi completes it without travelling to Delhi.

✕ It takes weeks, not days

Between the affidavit, the newspaper wait and gazette processing, plan for a month or more. It is not instant.

✕ Mistakes cost money and time

A wrong fee category or a spelling gap can mean a rejection, a fresh BharatKosh payment and a restart. Careful checking up front matters.

✕ The file is physical

Fee payment and download are online, but the actual file still has to reach the Delhi office by post, courier or in person.

Special cases

Marriage, Divorce, Minors & Spelling

Four situations where the general advice is wrong often enough to be worth spelling out.

💍

After marriage

For a passport, an attested marriage certificate or a joint photo declaration by both spouses (Annexure J) is enough, no gazette is required. Aadhaar accepts a marriage certificate too. Take the gazette route when you want the new name to hold everywhere, or when you have already used UIDAI's two name updates. Note separately that UP Board's Regulation 40 does not permit a marriage-based surname change on a board certificate.

📄

Going back to a maiden name

Harder than it should be. The Department requires a copy of the divorce decree, or an NOC from the husband, before it will notify a return to a maiden surname, and it will not process the change while proceedings are pending. The government defended that requirement in the Rajya Sabha on 29 July 2024, in a written reply by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, and a challenge to it is before the Delhi High Court, we could not verify a final outcome, so plan for the decree.

🧒

For a minor

The guidelines say "either father or mother" notifies the change, both parents' signatures are not a Department requirement, and neither are school records, whatever other sites list. You need the guardian's undertaking, two witnesses, and passport photos of the guardian and the child. Fee Rs 1,700.

✏️

Spelling and transliteration

Most UP cases are not really name changes. Yadav and Yadaw, Shukla and Shukl, Siddiqui and Siddiquee, Kumar and Kumaar, one Devanagari name spelled two ways in Roman across two documents. Say so plainly in the notice. A spelling fix on a birth certificate goes to the local Registrar under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, not the gazette.

Adding or changing a surname: if you adopt a surname different from your father's or mother's, or add a surname where you never had one, the Department asks for an affidavit attested by a First Class Magistrate, not just a notary.

If you work outside UP: a very large number of applicants from Purvanchal and Bundelkhand hold an Aadhaar with a Mumbai, Surat or Delhi address while their UP Board certificate and land records sit in the home district. The Department checks that your address proof supports the address in the notice. Use the address you can actually evidence with a current bill or a rent agreement, and keep it identical across the affidavit, the advertisement and the ID.

Avoid these

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Every one of these is something the Department's own guidelines or objection letters treat as a defect.

Mistake	Why it hurts
Chasing a "UP gazette portal"	There is none. The four domains agent sites cite do not resolve, and the state gazette has no citizen route
Different spellings across affidavit, advertisement and ID	Top cause of objection. Everything must match the undertaking exactly
Signing the proforma with the new name	The guidelines require the old name on the signature line
Advertisement placed under a "Change of Name" heading	The guidelines require a Public Notice heading and specifically rule out the other
Advertising in Urdu, in an Urdu paper	The matter must be in Hindi or English only, whatever the paper
Sending a cutting or a photocopy	The newspaper must go in original
Forgetting the witnesses' ID copies	Listed separately in the guidelines and commonly missed
Letting documents age past one year	The guidelines state documents must not be older than one year
Paying by demand draft, cheque or cash	BharatKosh (NTRP) only, since 01/10/2018
Wrong fee category on BharatKosh	Comes back as a shortfall objection, and the six-month clock starts
Sending an agent or a relative to the counter	Every proxy channel is excluded by name in the guidelines
Assuming the gazette will fix a UP Board marksheet	It will not. The Allahabad High Court has held a civil court decree is needed
Waiting more than three years to correct a board certificate	UP Board's regulations impose a three-year limit, upheld in 2025

The six-month cliff

If the Department raises an objection, a shortfall in fees, a missing CD, a mismatched spelling, you have six months from the first email, phone call or objection letter to fix it. Miss that window and, in the Department's own words, "the case will be treated cancelled", no further correspondence follows, and the whole procedure starts again at the full fee. Give a phone number that is actually answered and check the email address you gave them at least monthly until the notice appears.

How long it really takes

The only processing figure the Department actually publishes is in its name-and-gender guideline: "approx. a month time period is required as heavy posts are received throughout India." No service-level commitment appears in any guideline PDF. Applicants commonly report longer than a month where an objection had to be corrected, but we are not going to put a number on that, because the Department has not. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country and a very large share of that post comes from it. Anyone promising seven or fifteen days is describing their own turnaround, not the Department's, which also states it is not responsible for delays at the press.

The UP-only rule

UP Board Marksheets: The Gazette Is Not Enough

If your goal is a corrected High School or Intermediate certificate, this is the most important section on the page, and no other guide for this state carries it.

On 13 February 2025, a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court, Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra, decided State of U.P. and others v. Md. Sameer Rao and others, Special Appeal No. 459 of 2023, neutral citation 2025:AHC:20223-DB. It overturned a single judge's order and held, in terms:

In absence of decree from civil court even gazette publication alone … would be of no consequence.

The Bench's reasoning turns on what these two documents are. A civil court decree is a formal order of a court and binding in nature. A gazette notification, the Bench said, is a public notice and not of a binding nature. It went further and pointed out something most people never notice: the recital in a gazette notice that the applicant has complied with all legal requirements is the applicant's own certification, not the government's.

What this means in practice. For a name change on a UP Board High School or Intermediate certificate, you need a declaratory decree from a civil court. A gazette notification on its own will not do it, however correctly it was published. This is specific to UP Board certificates, it does not make the gazette useless, and UIDAI, the passport office and banks still rely on it.

The three-year limit

The same judgment applied UP Board's own regulations under the UP Intermediate Education Act 1921 and declined to relax them:

Regulation 7, Chapter III, clerical errors may be corrected within three years of the certificate being issued, on an application routed through your school principal to the Board secretary.
Regulation 40, Chapter XII, a name change requires an application within three years of completing the examination, supported by an affidavit.

Regulation 40 also closes several doors: as applied by the Bench, it does not permit adding a surname, a caste term, a religious designation or an honorific word or title, and it does not permit a surname change based on marriage. The Bench restored Regulation 40 in full, holding that a single judge had no jurisdiction to read a regulation down, and it observed separately that letting a person acquire a third and then a fourth name would become an endless process.

If you are inside three years, act now. Apply through UPMSP's own portals: samadhan.upmsp.edu.in for corrections to marksheets and certificates, and janhit.upmsp.edu.in for services notified under the UP Janhit Guarantee Act 2011. A corrected certificate and a corrected marksheet each carry a 30-day disposal timeline under that Act, with 15-day appeal windows. The Board does not publish a correction fee online, the only published figure we could find is a Rs 200 treasury challan for a migration certificate, so ask the Board rather than trusting a number from a blog.

Where the case stands

The matter went on to the Supreme Court, which issued notice and appointed a former Delhi High Court judge as amicus curiae. We could not verify any final Supreme Court ruling as of our last check, so the High Court's position is the one to plan around, and anyone telling you it has been overturned should be asked for the citation. If a board certificate is what you need corrected, this is the point at which to talk to a lawyer about a declaratory suit rather than buying a gazette package.

The cascade nobody explains

This matters beyond the board. When a UP university, Lucknow, AKTU, CCSU, MJPRU, DDU, BHU, AMU, corrects a name on a degree, it typically wants your 10th certificate as the anchor document. That is the very certificate the ruling above governs. So the order of operations for a UP applicant is often: civil court declaration first, then the board, then the university, with the gazette running alongside for Aadhaar, PAN, passport and bank. Doing it the other way round is how people spend a year and end up with a gazette that no one in the chain will act on.

Around the state

Where You Actually Go in Uttar Pradesh

The gazette file goes to Delhi. Everything around it happens where you live, and UP is big enough that this genuinely differs by district.

Passport: Uttar Pradesh has three Regional Passport Offices, not four

This is a small thing that a lot of pages get wrong. UP has three Regional Passport Offices, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Bareilly. Varanasi has a Passport Seva Kendra, which is a service counter operating under a Regional Passport Office; it is not an RPO, and calling it one sends people to the wrong place for anything an RPO handles.

Regional Passport Office	Address as published
Lucknow	Passport Bhawan, Vipin Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow-226010
Ghaziabad	CGO Complex-1, Hapur Road, Hapur Chungi, Kamala Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad-201002
Bareilly	Vikas Jyoti Commercial Complex, 2nd and 3rd floor, BDA Building, Priyadarshini Nagar, Bareilly-243122

Two honest caveats. These addresses come from the Passport Seva RTI disclosure, which carries a 2016 date, the three offices are confirmed on the current official locator, but verify the street address before you travel. And we deliberately publish no district-to-RPO map: we could not obtain one from an official source, and a wrong mapping costs you a day and a wasted journey. Check the office locator on passportindia.gov.in for your district.

The NCR advantage, and the Purvanchal reality

If you live in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Noida or Meerut, the Department of Publication at Civil Lines is a day trip, you can submit in person and know it arrived. From Ballia, Sonbhadra, Deoria or Lakhimpur Kheri it is a Speed Post question, and that is entirely fine: the guidelines allow post and courier. The distance changes the logistics, not the process. What it does change is how carefully you assemble the file, because a defect that a Noida applicant fixes in an afternoon costs an applicant in eastern UP two weeks of post each way.

The stamp, the notary and the newspaper

Your e-stamp comes from any Authorised Collection Centre on the state's published district-and-tehsil-wise vendor list, updated in June 2025 and covering the whole state. Your notary sits at the district court, tehsil or collectorate. The newspaper advertisement is the one thing that is easier in the big cities, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Prayagraj all have walk-in booking offices for the major dailies, while from a smaller town the ad is normally booked by phone or through an agency.

The legal position

Is a Gazette Notification Legally Compulsory?

An honest answer, because in Uttar Pradesh it changes what you should actually spend money on.

No. It is evidence, not a legal requirement. No Indian statute says you must publish in the gazette to change your name. The Supreme Court in Jigya Yadav v. CBSE (2021) framed the right the other way round: an individual "must be in complete control of her name and law must enable her to retain as well as to exercise such control freely 'for all times'", locating that freedom in Articles 19(1)(a) and 21.

What a gazette notification does is give you the strongest and most widely accepted documentary proof that the change happened and was publicly noticed. That is why institutions ask for it, and why UIDAI names it specifically as the document that unlocks a third Aadhaar name update. But the Allahabad High Court's 2025 ruling is the clearest statement anywhere in India of the limit: where a binding declaration is needed, a civil court decree is what does the work, and a gazette is a public notice.

You can see the same logic in the forms. The passport booklet accepts two newspaper clippings or the gazette notification. UIDAI lets you update a name twice on ordinary documents and asks for the gazette only past that limit. For a post-marriage change, a marriage certificate alone is enough for both.

So when is the gazette worth doing? When you need the new name to hold across banks, PSU employment, embassies and every future document; when you have used up your Aadhaar name updates; or when your change is not tied to a marriage or divorce certificate that can stand in for it. When the thing you actually need is a corrected UP Board certificate, a gazette on its own will not get you there, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a notification.

Corrections

Ten Things Other Uttar Pradesh Pages Get Wrong

Most pages ranking for this search are one template with the state name swapped in. One of these errors was on this page until we checked it.

The claim you will read	What is actually the case
"Apply on the UP gazette portal, fee around Rs 500 to Rs 1,500"	No such portal and no such fee. rajpatra.up.gov.in, upgovernmentpress.up.gov.in, printing.up.gov.in and upgazette.up.gov.in do not resolve at all
"Government Press, Minto Road, near Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001"	Minto Road is in New Delhi. The Lucknow presses are at Aishbagh and at 96 M.G. Marg, Hazratganj. We had this error too, and removed it
"Directorate of Government Printing, Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar" / "UP Government Press, Alambagh"	Neither appears in the Directorate's own telephone directory. Its HQ is at Civil Lines, Prayagraj
"Apply through the Panchayati Raj Department"	That department's e-District services are a copy of the Kutumb (family) register and rural birth and death certificates, certified extracts, not a name change
"The UP State Gazette is the authoritative route for a personal name change"	Its own archive's "Private" category returns zero records, and its published parts carry government notifications, not citizen notices
"You must publish in two newspapers, one English and one Hindi"	The guidelines say one advertisement only, either English or Hindi, under a Public Notice heading
"NRI gazette fee is Rs 7,500 to Rs 9,000"	Rs 3,500 for an adult living abroad, Rs 5,100 for a minor. The higher figures are agent pricing
"Rs 250 extra for each additional name"	Rs 250 is the add-on for adopting a name of another religion without converting. There is no per-alias charge
"Stamp paper Rs 20 / Rs 100 / Rs 10 to Rs 100, varies by state"	In UP it is fixed: Rs 10 stamp duty on an affidavit under Article 4, and Rs 10 on the notarial act
"The gazette notification is legally binding and updates everything"	For a UP Board certificate the Allahabad High Court has held the opposite: a gazette is a public notice, and a civil court decree is required

How to spot a copied Uttar Pradesh page in ten seconds

It gives a "UP gazette office" address containing Minto Road. That address is in Delhi.
It quotes a UP state gazette fee, or links a up.gov.in gazette domain. Try the link.
It calls Varanasi a Regional Passport Office. It is a Passport Seva Kendra.
It states a confident processing time in days. The Department publishes no service commitment.
It says nothing about UP Board's three-year limit or the 2025 Allahabad High Court ruling, the single most consequential fact for anyone in this state.
It contradicts itself on timelines within the same page. One popular page gives five different answers.

Where we could not verify something, we say so. We do not know UPMSP's name-correction fee, because the Board does not publish one. We do not know whether a UP driving licence name change can be done online, because every official Transport, Parivahan and Sarathi page we tried was unreachable. We do not publish a district-to-RPO map, because no official source gave us one. Those gaps are on the page instead of a number that looks confident.

Across Uttar Pradesh

Cities We Serve in Uttar Pradesh

We handle the full name change and gazette process for residents right across Uttar Pradesh, from western UP near Delhi to the eastern districts. Wherever you are, you share your details by call, WhatsApp or a short form, and our Delhi team does the filing for you. No local office visit.

Lucknow Kanpur Noida Ghaziabad Varanasi Prayagraj Agra Meerut Bareilly Gorakhpur Aligarh Moradabad Saharanpur Jhansi Ayodhya Mathura Firozabad Muzaffarnagar Rae Bareli Sultanpur Jaunpur Mirzapur Bulandshahr Basti

Do not see your city? We still cover it. Call 9540005026 and we will confirm.

Why YourDoorstep

Why People in Uttar Pradesh Choose Us

🏢

In the same city as the Gazette office

We are based in Delhi. We assemble the file, check it against the Department's own guidelines, and courier it, the only channel open to anyone other than you. No firm can submit at the counter as your representative, ours included.

📰

The advertisement, done right

One advertisement, under a Public Notice heading, in the format the Department accepts, and we will tell you when a second one is genuinely unnecessary.

🛣️

A real help for eastern UP

Everything runs on call, WhatsApp and a short form. No long trip to Delhi.

💰

Clear pricing

The government fee is shown separately, with no hidden charges.

An example of a case we handle. A shopkeeper in Varanasi wanted a spelling fix on his name for his bank and PAN, but the Central Gazette office is in Delhi, hundreds of kilometres away. He sent his old and correct name, address and ID on WhatsApp. We drafted the affidavit, arranged the notary, booked one Hindi daily under a Public Notice heading, paid the BharatKosh fee, and filed the complete kit in Delhi. In a few weeks the notice appeared in Part IV, and he updated his bank and PAN with the gazette PDF. He never left Varanasi. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I change my name through the gazette in Uttar Pradesh?+

Make a notarised affidavit, publish one advertisement in a daily newspaper under a Public Notice heading, then send the Department of Publication's file to the Controller of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054. Uttar Pradesh has no citizen route in its own state gazette, so the Central Gazette, Part IV of the Gazette of India, is the route.

Does UP have its own online portal for personal name change?+

No. The state gazette is produced by the Directorate of Printing & Stationery, UP, and its archive is public at dpsup.up.gov.in, but there is no application form, no fee schedule and no submission counter for a private notice, and the archive's own "Private" category returns zero records. The domains agent sites cite, rajpatra.up.gov.in, upgovernmentpress.up.gov.in, printing.up.gov.in, upgazette.up.gov.in, do not exist.

What is the fee for name change in Uttar Pradesh?+

The Department of Publication's published guidelines give Rs 1,100 for an adult, Rs 1,700 for a minor, Rs 3,500 for an adult living abroad and Rs 5,100 for a minor abroad, Rs 1,400 for a public notice or a name-and-gender change, and Rs 1,100 + Rs 250 where you adopt a name of another religion without converting. Payment is only on BharatKosh. These figures carry a 2016-17 date and the Department says the amount varies each financial year, so confirm on 011-23813761 before you pay. Stamp duty on the affidavit in UP is Rs 10.

How long does a name change take in Uttar Pradesh?+

The guidelines state no processing time. The only published figure is in the Department's name-and-gender guideline: roughly a month is needed "as heavy posts are received throughout India", and Uttar Pradesh sends a very large share of it. Applicants commonly report longer where an objection had to be corrected, but the Department publishes no number for that and neither will we. Add your own preparation and courier time.

Do I have to go to Delhi for the Central Gazette?+

No. The guidelines allow a file to be submitted personally or sent by post or courier. What they exclude is a representative: "No other channel of submission is permissible viz. Lawyer, Agents, Touts, Friends, Relatives carrying authority letter etc." A consultant can prepare and courier your file, nobody can hand it in as you.

Where is the UP State Gazette office located?+

The Directorate of Printing & Stationery, UP has its headquarters at 14/12 Sarojini Naidu Marg, Civil Lines, Prayagraj-211001, on 0532-2623371, with government presses at Prayagraj, Aishbagh in Lucknow, Rampur and Ramnagar in Varanasi, and a branch press at 96 M.G. Marg, Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001. Ignore any page listing "Government Press, Minto Road, Lucknow": Minto Road is in New Delhi. None of these offices accepts a citizen's name-change file in any case.

Is the Prayagraj Government Press the same as the Central Gazette office?+

No. The Government Press at Prayagraj prints the Uttar Pradesh state gazette. The Central Gazette is published by the Department of Publication at Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, a completely separate office under the Government of India. A file sent to Prayagraj for a personal name change will not be published.

Is the UP State Gazette valid for a passport?+

The question does not arise, because the UP state gazette has no citizen route for a name change. What UP residents hold is a Central Gazette Part IV notification, and the Passport Seva booklet accepts "clippings of two local newspapers or the Gazette notification of the concerned State Government, as the case may be", the two are alternatives. Because UP offers no citizen state-gazette route, what you will be presenting is a Central Gazette Part IV notification; confirm at your PSK and carry the newspaper originals as well.

Can I change my name online in Uttar Pradesh?+

The fee payment on BharatKosh and the final gazette download are online. The affidavit, newspaper ads and file submission are done offline, but you can run all of it remotely.

Where do I download my gazette once it is published?+

From egazette.gov.in. Under Search Category choose Weekly Gazette, then Part IV, and look for the Saturday dates near your publication. Keep several printouts. It needs no certification.

Do I need a lawyer to change my name in Uttar Pradesh?+

No. A notary attests the affidavit. Help from a consultant mainly saves you from format mistakes and rejections.

Which newspapers should I use in Uttar Pradesh?+

One is enough. The Department's guidelines say "one recent advertisement only", in an English or a Hindi newspaper, submitted in original, under a Public Notice heading, explicitly not under a "Change of Name" heading. Uttar Pradesh has an enormous print market: the Central Bureau of Communication's UP panel alone listed 515 publications in Hindi, Urdu and English. There is no government-approved list; the requirement is a daily local newspaper.

I want to change my surname after marriage. What extra do I need?+

Add your marriage certificate to the file. The affidavit states your maiden name and married name. The rest is the same.

Do I need signatures from two gazetted officers on my affidavit?+

No. The gazette file needs two witnesses, ordinary people, each giving signature, full name, address and mobile number. The one place a higher authority is required is where you adopt a surname different from your father's or mother's, or add a surname you never had: that needs an affidavit attested by a First Class Magistrate.

What if there is a spelling mismatch in my documents?+

Mismatched spellings across the affidavit, newspaper ad and ID proof are the biggest cause of rejection. Every spelling must match exactly.

How do I update Aadhaar and PAN after the gazette?+

Aadhaar is a demographic update at Rs 75 at an enrolment centre. UIDAI allows a name to be updated twice on ordinary documents; past that limit the gazette notification is exactly what unlocks it, through Regional Office exception handling with an old-name photo ID and your latest EID slip, helpline 1947. PAN goes through Protean (NSDL) or UTIITSL.

Can NRIs from Uttar Pradesh change their name?+

Yes. The published fee is Rs 3,500 for an adult living abroad and Rs 5,100 for a minor, not the Rs 7,500 to Rs 9,000 quoted on many sites, which is agent pricing dressed up as a government charge. The deed must be attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission of the country you live in.

What happens if my gazette application is rejected?+

It is usually an objection rather than a rejection, a fee shortfall, a missing CD, a spelling that does not match. You then have six months from the Department's first email, call or objection letter to fix it. Miss that and the case is treated as cancelled, no further correspondence follows, and you start again with the full fee.

Will the department return my original documents?+

No. The Department of Publication does not return submitted documents. Keep your own extra copies.

Is a gazette notification enough to change my name on a UP Board marksheet?+

No, and this is the single most important thing on this page for anyone with a UP Board certificate. In State of U.P. v. Md. Sameer Rao (Special Appeal No. 459 of 2023, neutral citation 2025:AHC:20223-DB, delivered 13 February 2025), a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court held: "In absence of decree from civil court even gazette publication alone … would be of no consequence." For a UP Board High School or Intermediate certificate you need a declaratory decree from a civil court, and the application to the Board must come within three years.

Why does the Allahabad High Court say a gazette is not enough?+

Because of what a gazette actually is. The Division Bench distinguished a civil court decree, a formal order of a court, binding in nature, from a gazette notification, which it described as a public notice and not of a binding nature. It also pointed out that the compliance recital in a gazette notice is a certification by the applicant himself, not by the government. That reasoning is confined to UP Board certificates; it does not make the gazette useless, and UIDAI, passport and banks still rely on it.

How long do I have to correct my name on a UP Board certificate?+

Three years. Regulation 40 of Chapter XII requires a name-change application within three years of completing the examination, and Regulation 7 of Chapter III allows correction of clerical errors within three years of the certificate being issued, routed through your school principal to the Board secretary. The Division Bench declined to read that limit down, observing that removing it would create an endless process. If you are inside the window, act now.

What does UP Board's Regulation 40 not allow?+

As applied in the 2025 judgment: you cannot use it to add a surname, a caste term, a religious designation or an honorific word or title, and a surname change based on marriage is not permitted through it. If your change falls into one of those categories, the Board route is closed and the civil court declaration is the path.

How do I apply to UP Board for a corrected certificate?+

Through UPMSP's own portals: samadhan.upmsp.edu.in for corrections to High School and Intermediate marksheets and certificates, and janhit.upmsp.edu.in for services notified under the UP Janhit Guarantee Act 2011. A corrected certificate and a corrected marksheet each carry a 30-day disposal timeline under that Act, with appeal windows. The Board does not publish a correction fee online, the only fee we could find published is Rs 200 by treasury challan for a migration certificate.

Do I really need two newspaper advertisements?+

No. The Department of Publication's guidelines say "one recent advertisement only … either in English newspaper or in Hindi Newspaper", submitted in original. The "two papers, one of each" rule is an agent convention. There is one reason to consider a second: a passport re-issue accepts two newspaper clippings or the gazette notification, and once your gazette is out, it satisfies that on its own.

What stamp paper do I need in Uttar Pradesh?+

Rs 10. Schedule I-B of the Indian Stamp Act as applicable in UP fixes Article 4, affidavit, at ten rupees, and Article 42, notarial act, at another ten. The Rs 100 sheets you will be sold are over-stamping, legally harmless, simply not required. E-stamps are available: the UP Stamp & Registration portal at igrsup.gov.in links to SHCIL for verification and self-printing, and publishes a district-wise list of Authorised Collection Centres.

Where do I find a notary in Uttar Pradesh?+

At the district court, tehsil or collectorate premises. There is no usable online directory: the Government of India notary portal states its online services are for Central Notaries only, and the india.gov.in lookup requires you to already know the notary's registration number. Ask to see the Certificate of Practice and the registration number rather than trusting a signboard. Notaries in UP are appointed by both the Central and State Governments.

Which passport office covers my district in UP?+

Uttar Pradesh has three Regional Passport Offices, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Bareilly. Varanasi has a Passport Seva Kendra, not an RPO, which is a distinction several websites get wrong. Because we could not verify a district-to-RPO mapping from an official source, check the official locator at passportindia.gov.in before you travel rather than trusting any list, ours included.

Can I change my driving licence name online in Uttar Pradesh?+

We could not verify this from an official source, so we are not going to tell you either way. Every official page we tried, the UP Transport Department's licence services page and the Parivahan and Sarathi FAQ pages, was unreachable during our checks. Take the gazette copy to your RTO and confirm there. Anyone quoting you a form number and a fee for this without a source is guessing.

Does the gazette need to be in Hindi or English?+

The advertisement matter must be in Hindi or English only, and the file follows the same rule. A notice placed in an Urdu paper in Urdu will not satisfy the Central Gazette, even though Urdu papers are properly empanelled and widely read across UP. Your affidavit and advertisement can perfectly well be in Hindi, just keep the transliteration of the new name identical everywhere.

Can an agent submit my file at the counter?+

No, and the guidelines are unusually blunt about it: "No other channel of submission is permissible viz. Lawyer, Agents, Touts, Friends, Relatives carrying authority letter etc." Preparing your file and couriering it is legitimate, that is what we do. Anyone promising to walk it up to the counter for you is describing something the Department does not allow.

People also search for: Name change agent in Uttar Pradesh, gazette office in Uttar Pradesh, name change in birth certificate UP, surname change after marriage, name change affidavit format, passport name change process, Aadhaar name change online.

Related Guides

Name change agent in Uttar PradeshWhat a consultant can and cannot legitimately do for your file.
Name change in LucknowCity-level detail: the Aishbagh press, RPO Lucknow at Gomti Nagar, and where to book the advertisement.
Name change procedure in NoidaFor Gautam Buddh Nagar, where filing in person at Civil Lines is a realistic day trip.
Name change in GhaziabadGhaziabad has its own Regional Passport Office, which changes the passport step.
Name change procedure in UttarakhandThe neighbouring state, carved out of UP in 2000, useful if your records are split across both.
Name change procedure in DelhiWhere the Department of Publication actually sits, in local detail.
Name change across IndiaState by state, including where a real state gazette route does exist.
How to change your name legally in IndiaThe national overview, including what the law does and does not require.

Verified against

Official Sources & References

The fees, documents, addresses and rules on this page trace to the sources below. Where a source contradicts what is commonly published, we followed the source and said so on the page.

The Central Gazette route

Guidelines for Change of Name for Adult (Major), Department of Publication (PDF)Rs 1,100 and Rs 3,500 abroad; the one-newspaper rule; the document list; the one-year limit; BharatKosh-only payment; download from egazette.gov.in.
Guidelines for Change of Name for Minor (PDF)Rs 1,700 in India and Rs 5,100 abroad; "either father or mother"; no school-record requirement.
Guidelines for Change of Name and Gender in Public Notice (PDF)"One recent advertisement Only"; the Public Notice heading rule; the exclusion of lawyers, agents and relatives as a submission channel; the six-month deficiency deadline; the fee-varies-each-year caveat.
Guidelines for change of religion, Gazette of India Part IV (PDF)The Rs 1,700 conversion fee, and the distinction from the Rs 250 add-on for adopting another religion's name without converting.
Guidelines regarding adoption of a child, Part IV (PDF)The adoption publication fee, revised to Rs 1,200 with effect from 01/10/2018.
Acceptable Proof of Old Name and Proof of Address (PDF)The exact ID and address documents the Department accepts.
Department of Publication, Change of Name guidelines indexIncluding the separate guidelines for adopting a maiden surname and a different surname.
e-Gazette portal, Government of IndiaWhere the published Part IV notification is downloaded, free.
BharatKosh (NTRP), Ministry of FinanceThe only accepted channel for the gazette fee since 01/10/2018.

Uttar Pradesh sources

Directorate of Printing & Stationery, Uttar PradeshWho produces the UP gazette, the real office addresses and telephone directory, the Citizen Charter, and the public gazette archive whose "Private" category returns zero records.
Stamp & Registration Department, Uttar PradeshSchedule I-B fixing affidavit stamp duty at Rs 10 (Article 4) and the notarial act at Rs 10 (Article 42), plus the e-stamp links and the district-wise Authorised Collection Centre list.
State of U.P. v. Md. Sameer Rao, Special Appeal No. 459 of 2023 (2025:AHC:20223-DB), full judgmentThe Allahabad High Court Division Bench judgment of 13 February 2025, from the court's own eLegalix service. The source of the quoted holding, the three-year limits and the Regulation 40 restrictions.
LiveLaw report on the same judgmentPress coverage, for readers who want the summary rather than the judgment.
UPMSP Samadhan portalThe Board's own route for corrections to High School and Intermediate marksheets and certificates.
UPMSP services under the Janhit Guarantee Act 2011The 30-day disposal timeline for a corrected certificate and a corrected marksheet, with appeal windows.
MJP Rohilkhand University, students' formsRs 200 for correction in a student's, mother's or father's name, the only UP university name-correction fee we could verify.
Central Bureau of Communication, empanelled publications, Uttar Pradesh515 publications in Hindi, Urdu and English across the state.
e-District Uttar Pradesh, service listThe state service catalogue, none of which is a name change; the Panchayati Raj department's e-District services are a copy of the Kutumb (family) register and rural birth and death certificates.

Updating records afterwards

Passport Seva, Application Form Instruction Booklet (PDF)"Clippings of two local newspapers or the Gazette notification"; the marriage-certificate route; the Tatkaal exclusion.
Passport Seva, Regional Passport Office locatorConfirms three RPOs in Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Bareilly.
UIDAI, Aadhaar enrolment and update charges (PDF)Rs 75 for a demographic update such as a name change.
UIDAI FAQ, name update limit exceededThe two-update limit, and the gazette notification as the document that unlocks a third update.
Supreme Court of India, Jigya Yadav v. CBSE (PDF)On the right to control one's own name under Articles 19(1)(a) and 21.

Government fees, addresses and timelines change. The Department of Publication's published fee schedule still carries a 2016-17 date and the Department itself says the amount varies each financial year, so confirm the current figure on 011-23813761 before you pay. The Regional Passport Office addresses come from a 2016 RTI disclosure, verify before travelling. Last checked against these sources in August 2026.

In short

The Short Version

Changing your name in Uttar Pradesh comes down to three steps: an affidavit, one newspaper advertisement under a Public Notice heading, and the notification in Part IV of the Gazette of India. Ignore the pages pointing you to a "UP gazette portal" or the Panchayat office, the state gazette has no citizen route, and four of the portal domains those pages cite do not exist at all.

The government fee is Rs 1,100 for an adult and Rs 1,700 for a minor, paid only on BharatKosh. Stamp duty on the affidavit is Rs 10. Expect roughly a month once the file is in order, and longer if something has to be corrected, and if the Department raises an objection, answer it inside six months or the case is cancelled.

One warning that applies only in this state: if what you actually need is a corrected UP Board marksheet or certificate, the gazette will not get you there. The Allahabad High Court held in February 2025 that a civil court decree is required, and the Board's own regulations impose a three-year limit. Read that section before you spend anything.

None of the rest needs a trip. The Department accepts files by post and courier. Whether you are in Lucknow, Noida, Kanpur, Varanasi or Gorakhpur, you can do this from home. Share your details, and our Delhi team assembles and couriers the file for you.

Name Change Procedure in Uttar Pradesh (2026)

Watch: Name Change Procedure in Uttar Pradesh

What this video covers

Uttar Pradesh name change at a glance

Key takeaways

Does Uttar Pradesh Have Its Own Gazette Portal for Name Change?

State Gazette or Central Gazette for Uttar Pradesh?

The "UP gazette office address" problem

What this video covers

Change Your Name Without Going Anywhere

The 3 Legal Steps

Make the affidavit

Publish the notice

Get the gazette

Step 1: Make the name change affidavit

Step 2: Publish the change in a newspaper

Step 3: Get the gazette notification

Documents Required for Name Change in Uttar Pradesh

Name Change Fees in Uttar Pradesh (2026)

Government fee, Gazette of India Part IV

The other costs

Three fee myths, corrected

Newspaper Publication in Uttar Pradesh

Which papers work in Uttar Pradesh

After the Gazette: Update Your Records

Name Change & Correction We Handle on Every Document

Aadhaar Card

PAN Card

Passport

Voter ID

Birth Certificate

Education Documents

Bank & Records

Driving Licence & RC

Property & Land Papers

LIC & Insurance

Ration Card & Gas

Service & Employer Records

Three Things the Experienced Know

Match your name letter for letter

There is no cheaper local option to weigh

Keep more copies than you think

Benefits & Drawbacks of the Gazette Route

✔ Accepted everywhere

✔ Permanent and easy to reprint

✔ Done from anywhere in UP

✕ It takes weeks, not days

✕ Mistakes cost money and time

✕ The file is physical

Marriage, Divorce, Minors & Spelling

After marriage

Going back to a maiden name

For a minor

Spelling and transliteration

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The six-month cliff

How long it really takes

UP Board Marksheets: The Gazette Is Not Enough

The three-year limit

Where the case stands

The cascade nobody explains

Where You Actually Go in Uttar Pradesh

Passport: Uttar Pradesh has three Regional Passport Offices, not four

The NCR advantage, and the Purvanchal reality

The stamp, the notary and the newspaper

Is a Gazette Notification Legally Compulsory?

Ten Things Other Uttar Pradesh Pages Get Wrong

How to spot a copied Uttar Pradesh page in ten seconds

Cities We Serve in Uttar Pradesh

Why People in Uttar Pradesh Choose Us

In the same city as the Gazette office

The advertisement, done right

A real help for eastern UP

Clear pricing

People Also Ask

How do I change my name in Uttar Pradesh?

Can I change my name in the Gazette online in Uttar Pradesh?

What are the fees for changing a name in the Gazette of India?

How much time does a gazette notification take?

Is a gazette enough for a name change in a marksheet?