Happy Schools Blog » Study in USA » Given Name vs Surname (or Last Name) : Passport Applications in India

Given Name vs Surname (or Last Name) : Passport Applications in India

Raghuram Sukumar —  October 22, 2009 — 185 Comments

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

Raghuram Sukumar

Posts Twitter Google+

Raghu is the founder/developer of Happy Schools Blog. You can learn more about him here and connect with him at Google +.

185 responses to Given Name vs Surname (or Last Name) : Passport Applications in India

  1. suryabhan singh May 1, 2013 at 12:34 PM

    i stay in gulf (qatar)-recently i got a new born baby-and i have apply for birth certificate in qatar when i get a birth certificate name is x-y-z- (x-is given name ,y-is father name ,z-is surname)this format i got birth certificate.
    when i go to indian embassy for passport they ask me in passport given name will be x,and last name will be y z—-and this same happen to my 1 child also given name is x–and last name is y & z -

    so its a normal procedure or i m thinking to much

  2. Greetings,
    I am applying for a fresh passport.
    My Name is Aseem
    Surname is Sheikh Mohd.
    In all my certificates it is shown as ‘Sheikh Mohd. Aseem’
    What should I fill in the Given name and Surname.
    Thanks in advance.

  3. Hey,
    My name is Padmashini. I wanted to know if in the given name field, can my father’s name also appear as middle name? My father’s name is Kannan.
    Given name: Padmashini Kannan
    Last Name: Nair

    Would this cause any problem?

  4. Hello Sir,
    I thank you for all the help that you are providing, it is really hard to find people like you these days. Your blog is just amazing, easy to understand and to the point. I thank you again for all the effort you have put up into the blog.
    I went through the article above regarding the “surname requirement” in the passport, and i have a query.
    The following are the details in my passport :
    Given Name – Mithun Rajan
    Surname – Blank
    As per all the records, the name matches with the passport.
    So basically,
    First Name – Mithun
    Last Name – Rajan

    My question to you Sir is that :
    Reading the article I guess i should put ‘Rajan’ as my last name, but you have mentioned that the last name should be you Father’s name. The problem is it does not completely match my Father’s name as it had been shortened like this -
    father name : Rajendran Nair
    So my last name had been shortened to ‘Rajan’ in my passport as shown above. This change is something that exists from Day 1, so it reflects everywhere.
    So the question is – is it okay if i give the surname as ‘Rajan’ even though my Fathers name reflects as ‘Rajendran Nair’. ?

  5. my name is vignesh K R
    in all my documents the name is vignesh K R
    but in passport we should not enter the initials
    so how to enter my given name
    and surname??
    K-Kantha R-Ramanathan R is my father name pls help

  6. Parama Eswar Nathan November 27, 2012 at 2:31 PM

    My Name in Passport is : Given Name : Parama Eswar Nathan
    : Surname : Narayanan

    Now i am going to apply Passport for my Son
    Birth Certificate Name is : Prem .P. Nathan ——– P – stands for Parama

    Now in my Son’s Passport Application what should be the Given Name and Sur Name
    and Fathers Name

  7. hello sir,
    Actually i have an doubt on applying passport
    My name is
    R DILLI RAJAN
    my 10th and 12th marksheet my name was printed as
    R DILLIRAJAN (no space)
    where as in my degree certificate it is printed as
    R DILLI RAJAN (with space and a correct format)
    .
    So because of this do i get any problem on applying the passport..?
    Please help me with the solution of your valuable information.

  8. In the passport, i have my name as

    Given name : Ramkumar Surname: Shri Swaminathan

    and the Father’s name mentioned in the passport as : ‘Shri Swaminthan’ but actual father’s name is ‘Swaminathan’

    I have all the certificates been mentioned as Ramkumar S S and father’s name as only ‘Swaminathan’.

    I havent registered for the gre exam yet. What if i take the gre exam now, and change the passport for changing the father’s name later, after registering for the exam.
    And am not going to change any of ‘my names’ while applying for the new passport.

    Will it cause any problems in future, or when applying for visa . Please clarify by mailing me sir.

  9. hi sir i want to know that after my sis graduation she is at home doing nothing, what should i mention in employment blank … not employed or home maker

  10. Hi,

    My name in passport is
    given name :Nxxxxx
    Surname : Pxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxxx

    While filling the university application they are asking for 3 fields:
    First Name:
    Last Name:
    Middle Name:

    Is it ok if i provide my

    Middle name as : Pxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Last Name: Rxxxxxxxx
    First Name: Nxxxxx

    While applying to some universities i am not able to fill my middle name to the full as there is a character constraint. Please help me out on what can be done about the same.

    please reply asap.

  11. hello …..here i have a small doubt m applying for passprt there they are asking first name + middle name that is given name and also surname…..in all my tenth,intermediate and b.tech certifcates my name is D.Anirudh Bhatt……and in my pan card it is Dharpally Anirudh Bhatt ….can any one pls tell wat should i have to fill in my passport?????.

    name: D.Anirudh Bhatt wats my first name ,midle name and surname?????

  12. Hi, my name is Komal i.e. I don’t write a surname. All my documents bear the same name. Even my father’s name bears no surname. I have already applied for the passport by the name Komal. Later I got to know , from these blogs of course that last name is compulsory for studying in US and also for applying for the GRE as the GRE scores with a name different from the passport. I have not yet received my passport but surely I will apply for a name change as soon as I receive my passport. Because of this I could not apply for GRE :( . I want to apply for the new name as Komal Srivastava. I wanted to know that will there still be any problem in name change as my father’s name doesn’t bear surname ??? Plzzz do reply ……

  13. Hello sir,
    My name in all certificates is C.Aswini
    If i fill my first name is Aswini and my initial i.e my father name Chandrasekar is my surname. can you pls tell me how it ll appear in my passport in name colum.. whether ASWINI C or ASWINI CHANDRASEKAR.

  14. Hi all,
    My name, according to what my certificates say is Kiran (my name) R*********th (a short version of my father’s actual name, which is R*********than). My doubt here is if I can give my “given name” as Kiran and Surname as “R*********th (which is substantiated by all my certificates) for my passport, or should I give the former as Kiran R*********th and latter as R*********than.
    Please shed some light on it as I need to get a passport for my higher studies.

  15. hi
    my name is varsha t n ,t stands for thankapan and n for nirmala,,find out my sur name

  16. sir, my name is AJAY KUMAR i want to know what is my middle name and sir name(last name),
    is KUMAR is the last name??????/

Trackbacks and Pingbacks:

  1. Registering for GRE Without Surname in the Passport and Problems - August 6, 2012

    [...] Given Name vs Surname (or Last Name) : Passport Applications in India [...]

Leave a Reply