Students applying for passport have some sort of confusion on how to how to fill Given Name and Surname Field in Indian passport applications. We have written few articles related to similar problem with Blank Surname in Indian Passport.Question
Hello sir, thanks for all the information you keep giving us through your blog. i am in some trouble here sir. My first name is Sriram . My fathers name – Sampath. I have all my certificates with the name – S. Sriram. While applying for the passport, what do i fill in the name columns with? Should the first name be Sriram Sampath or just Sriram?
Given Name vs Surname in Passport
Question 1 of Indian passport application form 1
- Name of applicant as it should appear in the Passport (Initials not allowed)
- Surname and Given Name
In your case
- Surname is Sampath
- Given Name is Sriram
Always remember that Surname is name of your dad or family name. Not everyone use their Dad’s name as Surname, instead they have common family name which will be used as initial. So, family name or dad’s name should be used as Surname in passport application.
- Surname in India is equal to Last Name in USA
If you don’t have Surname in passport, you can still take GRE and get US Visa, but life in US will be real tough, from getting SSN, Drivers license, other documents all require Last Name. You will have tough time to get all the names to match in all the documents.
If your Surname in Indian passport is blank and if you are planning to goto US or Study in US, you better add Surname in passport before applying for Visa or booking GRE Exam dates.
Some students apply for passport without Surname and end up facing lot of issue. It’s good to know that you are taking efforts to know the right way to fill the passport.
Certificate Name vs Passport Name
Since here in India we follow S. Sriram ( Initials and Name) type of naming instead if using Full Name ( Sriram Sampath) all the certificates and documents will have S. Sriram. There will no issues because of that. While submitting the application to Universities, there will be a field
- Does documents have names different than above name?
There you can include S. Sriram and other names formats used in the documents you are submitting.
Update – I have posted a detailed article with examples of various name formats and possible solutions. Surname Problems: Passport vs Marksheets, Certificates and Documents
Related posts:
- Applying to US Universities with Blank Surname in Passport
- Surname Problems: Passport vs Certificates, Marksheets and Documents
- 4 Options for Incorrect Surname in Indian Passport
- No Surname in Passport; FNU in US Visa; Life is US is Tough
- Is Passport Required to Register for GRE in India?
- Booked GRE Exam Date Without Passport; Now in Big Trouble
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Sir,
In all my certificates my name is K R Mythili, where K for my grand father name kanagaraj and R for my father name RAJAMANICKAM How can i fill my passport application in surname and given name column pls reply me.
I got married, if i want to change my name, can i add my husband name as my intial. whats the proof needed for it other than marriage certificate
sir,
I am also planning to write GRE exam before the pattern changes,
i m soon applying for the passport,by reading all the above,as u siad that there will be difficulties if the order of name went wrong,sir my name comprise of three words,in all my cirtificates it is “OMER BIN KHALEEL” but for passport i m a bit confused,how should i fill the feilds over there..
sir i want my whole name to be displayed
SIR PLZ I NEED YOUR HELP,THANK U
Hi
I am applying for a UK visa for me, my wife and my son. All three of us do not have any surname in the passport. My Given name in the passport is Krishnan Subramanian (my second name is my father’s first name), while my wife and my son have their second name as …. Krishnan (i.e. my first name). Will this create any confusion while applying for the visa as we would have different Surnames?
I have some naming problem in my Certificate and Passport.
My Name is in
1.High School Certificate,all university certificates : Arvind H.S
2.Passport : a) Given Name :- Arvind
b) Surname :- Hariharasubramanian
With the initial then the passport name will correspond to Arvind.H
If I take the exam now with the passport name of Arvind Hariharasubramanian, then will it cause a problem during my admissions in the colleges there in U.S as the name in my certificates are Arvind H.S
Can you please advise me that will this cause a problem?
Hello,
I want to apply passport for my kid.
As per the birth registration certificate his name is AMRIT D MORIAL,
First name : AMRIT
Middle name : D
Last Name : MORIAL
Will there be any problem while applying passport ? As I heard initial is not allowed for names, though his middle name is “D” it’s not an initial.
Will it be considered as initial?
hello.!!!!!!!!!
my name is divided as follows
lastname :CHITLA
first name: PRIYANKA
middle name: REDDY
ALL MY CERTIFICATES(10TH,INTER, B.E.,college ID card etc.) WERE NAMED AS CH.PRIYANKA REDDY
so when i booked a date for GRE, in given name i typed CH PRIYANKA and in middle name i left blank and last name i filled it as REDDY
so my name in GRE registration was CH PRIYANKA REDDY but in my passport it is CHITLA PRIYANKA REDDY,so will there be any problem at the test centre?????
will they allow me to the hall?????????????????
Hi,
In my passport, ‘Surname’ is blank and ‘Given name’ says Manish Anand.
Now i gotta apply for US visa (B1)..issue is that in the visa application form ‘Surname’ is a mandatory field.
What should I fill in the ‘Surname’ field.
Any help is highly appreciated….
Manish
@Manish,
I had the same problem. In the visa app you have to fill the Surname as “Manish Anand” and first name as “fnu”.
I got my name corrected last year, i would recommend you to correct the passport and then apply for visa. As you wouldn’t face any problem if you apply for SSN here. Hope this helps.
Hello Sir,
I want to apply for new passport, But in my 10th(SSLC) certificate my name is AKASH and in rest all documents have AKASH G GUTTEDAR, So what should i do for applying for new passport.
Thanks in Advance
Regards
Akash
hi,
my surname is Balliwar
n my name is ravali..
how will my name get printed in passport n how shud i book my gre exam??
Hello Sir,
My Name is: A.N.J.Syed Ali. My Father name is Jamal Mohamed.
I already have a passport where my Given Name is written as ‘Syed Ali’ & Surname has been written as “Adhamba Noormohamed Jamal Mohamed” (A – Adhamba, N – Noormohamed, J – Jamal Mohamed).
I am about to apply for Re-Issue now & wanted to know if I should still use the same name as SURNAME or can/should I change it?
Am I allowed to use only my Father’s name as Surname or should I follow the same as how it is in the current old passport, with all 3 names?
Please kindly advice. Thank you in advance.
My name in my passport is mentioned as:
Mohammed Kashif Aslam-Given Name(s) and nothing in my Lastname field.
I want to change it as
Mohammed: Last name
Kashif Aslam: First Name
Please let me know the procedure to apply for this name change.
Any comments will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Hi Kashif,
You can contact the passport office and they would provide you the form to correct the name. Basically you need to split your given name in to “Surname and Frist name”. Hope his helps.
Should just be a correction. You need a notary (available around the passport centers) to type that the name is to be split and corrected as you want. They have this ready made matter to type. They will charge you some money, but it should be fine. If the passport office accepts you are lucky.
Sometimes the passport office will say you need to get application for name change then you are in trouble. Mostly you need to give ad. in the paper saying that you have changed your name from xxx to yyy. And after some 30 (?) days only you can apply for name change along with the application and the paper ads.
Hi…I am K.V.VIDYA SHANKAR..Ive got prob regarding the name mismatch.. Ive taken my GRE and the details were:
FIRST NAME: K.V.VIDYA
LAST NAME: SHANKAR.
But in the passport the details are as follows:
SURNAME:KRITHIVASAN VAIDYANATHAN
GIVEN NAME: VIDYA SHANKAR.
Now that ive taken my GRE i know i cant make any changes to it anymore. But do i need to make changes in the passport? Are the details given for GRE and the passport same? Will this mismatch, if so, create touble during admission? What is the change m supposed to make in the passport?
hello sir…
my name is dharshan kl
all my certificates ( 1oth , puc , degree) have my name as
DHARSHAN K.L
K is the name of my native… karekyathanahalli
L is my father`s name…. lakshminarayan
how should i fill my name in passport…
what should be my GIVEN name & SUR name…?
please help….
Name on All certificates : Padamdeep Singh
My Surname is “Rehal” but it was never added to any of my certificates.
Given Name on Passport: Padamdeep Singh
Last Name on Passport: It was earlier Blank but then I added “Rehal” to last name field of my passport.
So now there is Name Mismatch in my Certificates and Passport and I’m going to apply for US VISA. Is it going to create any problem?
Hello Padamdeep
You said you had later added last name to your passport.
What was the procedure you followed to get it done.Does it need a change of name advertisement in newspapers or is it just like applying a new passport????
hello,
I’ve gone through your articles regarding surname in the passport.My question is, is it only USA which is so particular about surnames or will i face the same problems as mentioned in your posts with other countries like Singapore ,Australia,UK etc?
thank u.
all documents have diff names….
birth certi – C V N Ravitej
10 class C Ravitej Lakshman
plll help me
Should not be a problem, but when applying for passport see that it is like :
Surname : your surname (Cxxx)
Givenname : Firstname (Ravitej) + middlename (Lakshman)
If you want to include the Vyy Nzz in your Middlename, its fine.
Hi,
I hold an indian passport where the sections in passport are as follows -
Given Name – Sibi Mathews
Surname – Kaniamparampil
My other educational and work experience documents just have ‘Sibi Mathews’ within them. Will this cause an issue while applying for US VISA? If yes how can i work around this?
i want a help i applied for pass post were
1) my name: SHARMA POOJA
2 FATHERS NAME I WROTE: SHARMA MANOJ
3)MOTHERS NAME : SHARMA GITA
PROBLEM IS IN CASH RECIEPT THEY WROTE MY NAME AS
POOJA SHARMA
BUT FATHERS NAME AS SHARMA MANOJ WILL MY PASSPOST GET CANCELLED?
what i need to do for correction
Verify the name in the application you submitted.
Hello sir , my name is nandan b m , where ‘b’ stands for balasa (family name) , ‘m’ stands for madan kumar (father name), i’m totally confused how to fill my name in passport application so please help me sir
surname expansion in passport and it is abbreviated as “G” in all the rest of the certificates
hello frend….i to have a same problem…would u got any solution for this? r else is it ok to carry the same certificates that v have now?
Dear sir,
I am going to apply for GRE and TOEFL before that i have read all of your post regarding the Name controversies me too having a very big dilemma regarding my name:
In 10th:L VENKATA RAMANAN
In 12th: L VENKATA RAMANAN
UG:VENKATA RAMANAN L
PG:VENKATA RAMANAN L
In Passport:
Surname : LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
Given Name: VENKATA RAMANAN
and my question is how i have to give my names while
1) GRE Regristration (First name:? , Middle name:? , Last name:?)
2) TOEFL (First name:? , Middle name:? , Last name:?)
3) Filling Online application for US admissions
Plz help me sir,
As per your passport.
Hello.
The given name on my passport says Rahul Karan and the surname section on my passport is Blank. When I apply for visa online using the vfs website, I get an error saying the Surname is required.
What do I do in this case?
Get ur name corrected on passport. Surname is required for most of the things.
Dear Sir,
I’m gonna apply for my passport in the next few days and am also facing problem in sorting out my name.
My name is Shivguru.A.G.E. (Initials expanded : A-Native, G-Grand father’s name and E-Father’s name)
Is it ok if i enter my father’s name alone as surname excluding other two initials and my name as given name?
or
Should i expand all the three initials for my surname?, your advice on this would be of much help. Thank you.
That is upto you on how you have your last name, but make sure you have a last name. You have few options on how to use the names.
First Name – Shivguru; Middle – A G; Last – E
FN – Shivguru; Last E
FN – Shivguru A; Middle G; Last E
Make sue you have expanded name as last name. Not just initials. Wich ones you have expanded is something you have to decide.
What about this :
FN – Shivguru; Middle – Gxx Eyy; Last – Azz
or
FN – Shivguru; Last – Azz
Hello Sir, I am Kishan Krishnamurthy. In all of my documents SSC, HSC marksheets, migration, Engineering marksheets, migration, and also in other documents viz. Voter ID, Driving license etc. I have my name as Kishan. I haven’t applied for my passport yet.
Although post above suggests that I should get my passport as
Surname: Krishnamurthy
Name: Kishan
and get registered with GRE and TOEFL with the same.
Won’t visa officer taking my interview will ask that why there is the difference between my name in my passport and my documents?
Also, with what name I will get my MS degree and marksheets in USA,
Kishan or Kishan Krishnamurthy? Because if it is Kishan Krishnamurthy, there will be a discrepancy in my documents in my bachelors degree and my masters degree.
Will this create any problem in getting CPT, OPT or job afterwards in USA?
Also Sir, do all universities have this field-
Does documents have name different than above name?
You have to apply for passport with Surname – Krishnamurthy. Degree in US will be awarded as Kishan Kirshnamurthy and thats absolutely fine and you will not have any problems.
Kishan – Answer to your question is posted here – http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/name-mismatch-between-marksheets-certificates-and-passport/
hi
wit regard to your response abt surname and first name i ve another query. all my school and coll certificates say deepak v. while applying for univs i would ve given my first name as deepak and last name as venkat. in all univ applications there is a column asking whether my documents would arrive in some other name. should i specify deepak v in these columns or is it understood?
URGENT :
Ive booked my GRE dates and ive given my
first name:Ramanathan
last name:chockalingam
but in my passport its
sur name:chockalingam
given name :Ramanathan
so will there be any problem in writing the exam or while applying for universities????in my certificates its given as C.Ramanathan..so wat should i do???change the name in passport or should i cancel the exam???
last name = sur name = chockalingam
given name = first name + middle name = Ramanathan
So you are fine my dear friend.