Birth Certificate Name Change in Rajasthan

Who can apply for a birth certificate correction in Rajasthan

• The person named on the certificate, once they are 18.
• A parent or guardian, for a child under 18.
• A close relative or someone authorised in writing, where the applicant cannot attend. Ask the office what authorisation it accepts before sending anyone.

The registrar checks that the applicant is connected to the record, so carry ID that shows the relationship as well as the documents listed below.

Why people correct a name on a Rajasthan birth certificate

• A spelling mistake made when the birth was registered, often found years later by a passport office or an employer.
• No name on the certificate, because the birth was registered before the child was named.
• A short form or pet name entered instead of the full legal name, or an initial that was never expanded.
• Marriage or divorce. A surname taken or dropped later is a legal name change, not a correction; see returning to a maiden name after divorce.
• Adoption, religious conversion or gender transition, each of which has its own route.
• A mismatch with Aadhaar, school or board records, where one document has to be brought into line with the rest.
• The date of birth is wrong too, which is a separate application; see correcting a date of birth.

The reason decides the route. A mistake in what was recorded is a correction. A move to a different name is a legal name change, and that needs the Gazette.

What changed under Rajasthan’s 2025 rules

The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 and Rajasthan’s State Rules of 2025, issued through the state’s Department of Economics and Statistics, ended the old practice of making most name changes on a notarised affidavit alone. As reported in April 2026, a Gazette notification is now needed for:

• Any change to the first name
• Adding or changing a middle name
• Adding a parent’s name to the child’s name
• Changing a surname that is already recorded

For people living in Rajasthan, the notification has to be in the Rajasthan Government Gazette. For people who do not live in Rajasthan, the Udaipur District Registrar has said only a Gazette of India notification is accepted. It is the biggest shift in how a birth certificate name change works in the state, and many older guides still describe the affidavit-only route.

Offices can apply new rules unevenly at first. To be fair, that’s true of most rule changes like this one, so confirm the current position with the Registrar before you pay for a newspaper notice.

The surname exception in Rajasthan

Adding a surname where the certificate shows only the child’s name does not need a Gazette notification.

Parents can add their surname with a simple affidavit and documentary proof of that surname, such as their Aadhaar. This applies only where no surname is recorded. Correcting or replacing a surname that is already on the certificate falls under the Gazette rule.

Adding a surname, step by step

1. Check that the certificate shows no surname at all, rather than a surname you want to change.
2. Prepare a notarised affidavit stating the surname to be added.
3. Gather proof of the surname, such as both parents’ Aadhaar.
4. Apply to the Registrar that issued the certificate, through Pehchan, an eMitra kiosk, or at the office.
5. Download or collect the updated certificate once the Registrar approves it.

What changed, at a glance

Your change	Before the 2025 rules	Now
Correcting a spelling	Affidavit and proof	Affidavit and proof, unchanged
Adding a surname where none is recorded	Affidavit and proof	Affidavit and proof, unchanged
Changing a first name	Often an affidavit alone	Gazette notification
Adding or changing a middle name	Often an affidavit alone	Gazette notification
Changing a surname already recorded	Often an affidavit alone	Gazette notification

Pehchan and eMitra: applying online in Rajasthan

Pehchan is Rajasthan’s civil registration portal, and it accepts correction requests online.

Pehchan, at pehchan.rajasthan.gov.in, registers births, deaths, still births and marriages across the state. You can apply for a birth certificate correction, enter the correct details and upload supporting documents; once the local Registrar verifies them, the corrected certificate is issued as a digitally signed PDF. Pehchan also has a name inclusion service for certificates issued without a name.

If you would rather not apply yourself, the state’s network of more than 80,000 eMitra kiosks can submit the application for you… though someone still has to hand over the Gazette notification before the Registrar will even open the file. Where a change needs a Gazette notification, complete that step first, because the Registrar will ask for it with the application.

Applying online through Pehchan or in person

Rajasthan runs civil registration on Pehchan, which does accept correction applications online, and eMitra kiosks file them for people who would rather not do it themselves.

Since the 2025 rules, a kiosk cannot turn a Gazette case into an affidavit-only case. If the change needs the Gazette, get the notification first, or the registrar will return the file.

Documents required for a Rajasthan correction

• The existing birth certificate
• A notarised affidavit stating the change and the reason
• Both parents’ Aadhaar, or other proof of the surname being added
• A school record showing the name, where available
• For a change that needs the Gazette: the Gazette notification and the original newspaper notice

If you no longer have the original certificate, get a duplicate first.

Making a change that needs the Gazette in Rajasthan

For a change covered by the 2025 rules, the order is affidavit, newspaper notice, Gazette notification, then the Registrar.

Step 1: the affidavit

The affidavit gives the old name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the new name, the date and place of birth, the parents’ names and the reason for the change, attested by a Notary Public on stamp paper. Write every detail exactly as it appears on Aadhaar.

Step 2: the newspaper notice in Hindi and English

Publish the change of name in a leading daily newspaper circulating in your area, giving the old name, the new name and your address. The Gazette office needs the original printed page, not a scan, so keep it safe. Most applicants in Rajasthan publish twice, once in a Hindi daily and once in an English one, since some departments ask to see both.

Which Gazette to use

If you live in Rajasthan, the notification goes in the Rajasthan Government Gazette; ask the District Registrar or an eMitra kiosk for the current application route before you start. If you live outside Rajasthan, use the Gazette of India.

Applying to the Gazette of India

For applicants outside Rajasthan, the Gazette of India is published by the Department of Publication in Delhi.

The Department of Publication’s guidelines ask for:

• A signed undertaking giving your old and new name, your father’s or husband’s name and your address
• The original newspaper notice
• The change-of-name matter in the prescribed format, typed, in duplicate, signed in your old name with two witnesses
• A CD with the same matter in MS Word, without the witness portion
• A signed certificate that the printed copy and the CD copy match
• Two self-attested passport photographs and a self-attested photo ID
• The publication fee, paid through the Bharatkosh portal

The fee is ₹1,100 for an adult and ₹1,700 for a minor. Send the application by post, or hand it in, to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. The office does not accept applications through agents or advocates, so the applicant signs and submits it. Documents should be less than a year old, and nothing sent is returned.

No printed copy is posted to you. Publication usually takes 30 to 45 days; after that, download your notice from egazette.gov.in by searching the weekly Gazette, Part IV, for the week it appeared.

Back to the Registrar

Apply for the correction with the Gazette notification, the affidavit and the original newspaper notice, through Pehchan, eMitra or the Registrar’s office. Once the Registrar approves it, the updated certificate is issued.

What a name change costs in Rajasthan

Government and publication costs are modest, and a correction that does not need the Gazette skips the newspaper notice too.

Item	Typical cost
Affidavit (stamp paper and notary)	₹200 – ₹500
Newspaper notice	₹300 – ₹1,000 or more, depending on the paper
Gazette notification	Gazette of India: ₹1,100 for an adult, ₹1,700 for a minor. Rajasthan Government Gazette: set by the state
Surname addition	Affidavit and the Registrar’s fee; no newspaper or Gazette

If you’d like us to prepare the file, we quote our fee in writing after reviewing your documents, so you know the full cost before anything is filed. Weirdly enough, the state Gazette route can end up simpler than the Gazette of India process once you know which office to ask. A Gazette application is signed and sent by you, as the Gazette office requires.

How long a Rajasthan correction takes

Route	Typical time
Adding a missing surname	A few weeks, depending on the Registrar
Correction through Pehchan	Depends on the Registrar’s verification
Change that needs the Gazette	Usually a few months in total; the Gazette step is the slowest

Special cases: children, marriage and applicants abroad

• Marriage. Marriage does not change a birth certificate. A surname taken on marriage is a legal name change, not a correction; the passport office accepts a marriage certificate, but most other departments want the Gazette notification. See our guide to name change after marriage.
• Children. A parent or guardian signs the affidavit and applies for the child. If the certificate was issued without a name, use Pehchan’s name inclusion service.
• Applicants living abroad. The name-change deed can be attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission and a Gazette of India application sent by post. A family member can usually deal with the Registrar in Rajasthan on your behalf with written authorisation; ask the office what it accepts.
• Gender transition. The law on changing name and gender on official records was amended in 2026. Our guide to birth certificate name change for gender transition explains the current routes.
• Religious conversion. A new name taken on conversion follows the legal name change route; see name change after religious conversion.
• A parent’s name is wrong rather than the child’s: see correcting a mother’s or father’s name.

If your Rajasthan application is stuck

Raise it with Rajasthan Sampark, the state’s grievance system: call the CM Helpline on 181, free, or register a grievance at sampark.rajasthan.gov.in. You can also take it to the District Registrar of Births and Deaths.

Official links for Rajasthan

Every link here was checked on 22 September 2026. Official Indian government sites end in .gov.in or .nic.in.

What you need	Where to go
Correct a birth record	Pehchan
Apply through a kiosk	eMitra
Download or search the birth record	Civil Registration System
Gazette of India notification	egazette.gov.in, Part IV
Update Aadhaar	myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in
Update PAN	Protean or UTIITSL
Update the passport	passportindia.gov.in
Update the voter ID	voters.eci.gov.in

After the certificate is corrected: what to update next

Other records do not update themselves. Update Aadhaar first, then use it with the corrected certificate or the Gazette notification for everything else.

Update Aadhaar before anything else, since Pehchan itself, along with banks and the passport office, increasingly checks new requests against whatever Aadhaar already shows. Get that one record straight and the rest tend to follow with less friction.

Order	Record	Where to update it
1	Aadhaar	myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in or an Aadhaar Seva Kendra
2	PAN	Protean (formerly NSDL) or UTIITSL
3	Passport	passportindia.gov.in
4	School and board certificates	Your school and the board
5	Voter ID	voters.eci.gov.in
6	Bank accounts	Your branch

Common mistakes that delay Rajasthan applications

• Applying with an affidavit alone for a first name or surname change that now needs the Gazette.
• Treating the replacement of an existing surname as a surname addition.
• Using the Rajasthan Government Gazette when you live outside Rajasthan, or the other way round.
• Keeping only a scan of the newspaper notice when the original printed page is needed.

Registered somewhere else? See all our state service pages. Nearby states: Birth Certificate Name Change in Haryana, Birth Certificate Name Change in Gujarat, Birth Certificate Name Change in Delhi.

If your Rajasthan application is rejected

When Pehchan or an eMitra kiosk turns an application away now, it’s almost always one of two reasons: an affidavit alone was filed for a change the 2025 rules moved into the Gazette bucket, or the wrong Gazette was used for where the applicant actually lives. Not every eMitra operator knows the rule changed, because it rolled out gradually across districts through 2025 and into 2026. A kiosk can take your payment and file an affidavit-only application that the Registrar returns weeks later. If that happens, don’t argue with the kiosk operator. Go to the Registrar’s office directly, or call Rajasthan Sampark on 181, and ask exactly which document is missing before refiling. Once the correct Gazette notification is in hand, the second submission usually moves faster, since the Registrar has already seen the rest of the file.

Example scenario

An illustration of how the rules above work in practice, not a client record.

A man in Jodhpur wanted his certificate to show his legal first name instead of “Bunty,” the nickname his family had given the hospital in 1994. Before 2025 an affidavit alone would have done it. He filed exactly that through an eMitra kiosk in early 2026, and the kiosk took his payment without flagging anything. Months later, the Registrar rejected it, citing the amended rules he hadn’t heard about. He ran the newspaper notice, applied for the Rajasthan Government Gazette since he still lives in Jodhpur, and once the notification came through, the Registrar accepted the file on the spot. The real time lost wasn’t the Gazette process itself — it was the weeks between his first submission and finding out it had been rejected, since Pehchan’s status just read “pending” the entire time.

Birth certificate name change in Rajasthan: FAQs

Sources for this Rajasthan guide

• Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: section 14 (name entered later) and section 15 (correction of entries); Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023
• Udaipur Times, Birth Certificate Name Change Rules Updated in Rajasthan: Gazette Notification Mandatory, 30 April 2026; udaipurtimes.com
• Pehchan, Rajasthan civil registration portal; pehchan.rajasthan.gov.in
• Rajasthan Sampark, CM Helpline 181; sampark.rajasthan.gov.in
• Department of Publication, Controller of Publications: Guidelines for Change of Name for Adult, Gazette of India Part IV; egazette.gov.in

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