[TeaPot1]

It is not just the missing surname. The name itself is a problem, especially if you have a traditional Tamil/any south name. Whenever i go overseas or on flight, if someone start to pronounce my name i immediately raise my hand like a school boy and stop them saying it.

Initials are always issue in documents. In passports father name will be in front, whereas school certificates will have only initials. I gave proper surname to my kids, still i could see many kinds following initial's. (My Sister's Kid have 2 initial :-D)
In filling may online forms, we have to enter the initial in surname where it will get accepted being single letter. Never ending story in south.

Off-course changing name is an option, but considering the legal procedures and document follow-up's, many choose to just live with it.

[G20Rider]

Why BIL faced this issue recently while applying for a UAE visa since his surname field is empty.
Thankfully that directive was revoked by UAE within a few days and he can travel now. I still can’t understand the reasoning on such a ban.

But on that topic, I would strongly recommend getting a surname added in passport. This can cause a lot of unnecessary hassles especially in foreign countries. From very small things like booking a flight ticket (Surname and first name usually are mandatory fields in most places) to more critical places such as visa/green card applications etc where you do not want anything to go wrong. I know few people who had to endure a lot of mental stress as their visa processing got stuck in bureaucratic maze due to missing surname.

[hondatoyotafan]

Originally Posted by G V Krishna

I take offense with the title. In the Telugu states Surname/Family name is 99% prevalent.
Now coming to the etymology of names among Telugu people, 99% of times it is of the form <Family Name> <GivenName1><GivenName2><GivenNameN>.

Some People who feel that Caste is important or are 'proud' of their caste, include the caste name in the end.

The problem with the telugu states is the exact opposite of too big names, my name is actually <first name> <favorite god name 1> < favorite god name 2> <caste name> <last name>

I had a problem with this in both the US and Canada where i lived because of limited Database space with different government applications where the older Oracle DBA's tuned their DB to have max characters of 32. I had to escalate to their respective l2 support to correct my names in different departments. In the US they gave me an SSA letter to give to other departments and in Canada they fixed it in some central database.

The interesting thing about these surnames in Andhra where i grew up is the girls in our college asking boys their surnames initially to get a feel of their castes.

[Ravi Parwan]

Wow, this thread is just in time for me. Actually this surname missing practice is not limited to any particular part of India.

Just yesterday got an appointment for my mother to get another passport when she had gotten her previous passport in March this year!

Parents are planning to visit the UAE in Feb next year and hence thanks to this ruling we have to get a new passport for her. She has travelled to both Europe and US on a passport with no surname.

But I do feel that the single name concept is difficult for administration and at least 2 names are good to have to distinguish people. In North India, some very common names like Amit and Rajesh are so popular that I have at least 5 contacts each with the same first name and last!!

Even my wife used to not use any surname, but I insisted on her adding a surname to her Aadhar. Then she also added surname to her passport at the time of last renewal. Over time she has started using a surname in all her documents so filling forms has become less tedious...

[Drkalgaonkar]

Surnames in India is a very recent concept. In old days even in Maharashtra people were known and called by their first names and if there was any doubt they that person would be asked 'kunacha' (whose)? ... meaning name of the father and it was sufficient.

Next came the phase when the families needed names and then their caste, trade or some administrative post/ honorary title was added next to the names... like Teli, daruwala, Deshmukh or Pandit.

Then there are those who either belonged to some place or migrated from a particular place that they belonged to but no longer reside there, they would add the name of the village+kar (e.g. Solapurkar) and use it to distinguish the family.

Here in Maharashtra it is as rule now the first name is a given name of the person at birth, the middle name is always father's name ... nowadays a few insist on using mother's as well and the last name is family name ... that is surname.

For Marathi people (do read the book Gaavgada by Mr Aatre)

Now it has become norm. It works. Yes, many surnames are indicative of castes / trades but hey, you can always change them if you want.

And for those people who insist on surnames, I think that is illogical. I remember the name of one minister from Afghanistan was just Abdulla Abdulla.

In future we may shift to UID or some QR codes. The names would be used by the very closed ones.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Drkalgaonkar

Surnames in India is a very recent concept.

No, you can't say that about all of India, different regions have different customs. I have seen my great grandparents' wedding invitation printed in 1913. All names had 3 parts, family name, given name and surname. Both my parents have 3 part names.

However, due to the caste clashes of the 60s, my dad changed the family name and surname to mere initials when admitting my brother and I to school. So I did not have surname/lastname while growing up, rarely anyone discovered my caste unless they knew my dad's name. That was the point I suppose. In fact, I thought the S in my initials stood for my dad's name and entered the same in my first passport.

However, when everyone started called me by my dad's name in my first US visit, I decided this must be fixed. Many wanted to know if I am related to Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Upon returning from my first US stint (mid 90s), I went to the civil court and changed my last name from my dad's first name to his last name. Since both started with S, all my school certificates with just initials still match my name. By this time caste hardly mattered in professional circles.

To add further complication, since I am from a matrilineal clan, we are supposed to take mother's last name. However, that practice faded away during my parents' generation. However, I do have some older relatives who use their mom's lastname instead of dad's lastname.

[motorworks]

Thank you fellow bhpians for your views, thoughts and suggestions! Was good to read many of your experiences as well!

Like most of you suggested, having a surname is more or less mandatory. When we travelled abroad recently, I had to repeat my son’s first name as surname too for the airline tickets, since there was no way to leave it blank. And when our visas came, his last name read “LNU” meaning last name unavailable. It took some explaining with the airline that his passport wouldn’t match with neither the ticket and nor the visa since his passport had the surname to be blank. At that point of time I probably didn’t think of it seriously, but when this recent UAE ruling came in, I figured adding a surname is inevitable. And like many of you suggested, better to get it done now rather than leaving it for too late.

I have now reached out to an agent to initiate this process which includes some notary document plus some kind of newspaper announcement etc, followed by changing the name in my son’s passport. Probably will have to make this change in Aadhar post the name change in passport as well.

So the most likely option is to add a very neutral and simple name as his surname or just keep my name as his surname. We don’t really have any family name in the form of a caste or anything flowing down, our grand parents had it, but they refrained from giving the same caste led surname to our parents for many reasons.

Let’s hope my son doesn’t have to endure any difficulties due to what I’m about to do now!

Thanks again for all the views, suggestions and also for sharing your experiences! Fantastic always to have such feedback from fellow bhpians!

[pedrolourenco]

Interesting thread. Thankfully I do not have this problem. In Goa everyone (irrespective of religion or caste) has a First Name, Middle Name (Optional) and a Surname. If you have more than that you have to fill in 2 names in one of the fields.
The problem I faced is when I went out of Goa for studies. The form had First Name, Father's Name and Surname. The certificate was printed as First Name, Father's Name followed by Surname.
The other problem I face is my surname has a special character which cannot be filled in most forms. My surname is Lourenço. I have to fill in "c" instead of "ç".

[zaks]

Wow, this is so true. When I was growing up my name was always like S.myname and my first passport indeed had no surname as I expanded that initial also into my first name. When I traveled out for work, people started calling me by my father's name. It was so annoying and then later I understood the western concept of having a first name and a second name or surname. So when time came for passport renewal I just added my fathers name as surname, else it would not accept.

[Formula1]

What happens when there are initials after the name? Does it create issues anywhere?

[dragonfire]

I had been to Delhi/Gurgaon recently and used to catch Uber to the office and back. Every other cab I get had the words "Jat" written on the number plate or more often 0n the dashboard. I got to know from a friend that ut us a caste name, but according to him they don't use them as surnames. If they can proudly display their caste on the car, why can't they use it in their names?

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I have now reached out to an agent to initiate this process which includes some notary document plus some kind of newspaper announcement etc, followed by changing the name in my son’s passport. Probably will have to make this change in Aadhar post the name change in passport as well.

You don't need an agent. Just go to any decent notary in BDA complexes. The passport office requires the notary affidavit in a specific format. Ensure your notary is aware of the proper format. Make multiple copies (not a photocopy) of this. Once you have the affidavit, publish the change in two newspapers, one in English and one local language. Buy and keep multiple copies of the newspapers with the notification. Submit these two to get the name updated in the passport and aadhar.

[crashnburn_in]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

Cant you just go down to some office and change your name? A friend of mine Roger Jayesingha changed his name to Roger Endlesspain and that today is his legal name.

Ha ha! that was funny.

I came across this name gambit first with a few guys in college and I was kinda baffled.

As this would lead to the childrens last name being different from the parents and this would be harder to process when it comes to documents and IDs; be it passports, IDs or legal documents or forms.

Following as its been a curious naming issue always.

To add to it I found a longer variation of name addition in Mexico Will share if anyones curious.

[DigitalOne]

Just experienced a strange inconsistency. I could successfully book an Indigo flight via Amazon app using the {Given Name} {Initial} format as I usually do, but while booking a Vistara return flight via the same Amazon app, it asked for at least 2 characters in the second name. I had to expand the initial (father's name). Looks like Vistara is not tuned to the South Indian name formats .

[ontheroad]

Guys, anyone has booked AirIndia international ticket with only given name? If my name is ABCD EFGH all in given name column in passport, do I enter in ticket as FNU ABCD EFGH or ABCD EFGH in given name and ABCD EFGH in surname? Thanks.