Hindi to English Name Spelling Difference in Jharkhand
Your Class 10 marksheet says Vikash. Your Aadhaar says Vikas. Your bank says Bikash. In Hindi all three are the same name, written the same way. Nothing about your name ever changed. What changed is the clerk who typed it into English, and Hindi has sounds that English has no fixed letter for. This is the commonest name problem in Jharkhand and it is also the most wrongly handled, because families are sold a change of name when what they have is a wrongly written name. This page shows you the exact letter pairs that drift, which direction they drift in this belt, and how to decide which English spelling becomes the correct one.
Do one thing before anything else. Find a certificate that carries your name in Hindi as well as in English, and read the Hindi. If the Hindi on every paper is the same and only the English differs, then your name did not change, its spelling drifted, and everything after this follows from that one fact. It means your case is a wrongly written name, which the Department of Publication's own public notice proforma is built for, with the words "HAS BEEN WRONGLY WRITTEN AS" printed on the form. It is not a change of name, and swearing a change of name affidavit over it declares a change that never took place. The drift itself is not carelessness. Hindi has sounds that English writes in more than one way, so one sound becomes two spellings: v and w and b in Vikas, Vikash, Bikash and Bikas; sh and s at the end of Prakash and Prakas; ksh and x in Lakshmi and Laxmi; ee and i in Suneeta and Sunita; oo and u in Anoop and Anup; y and j in Yadav and Jadav. In Jharkhand this drifts in particular directions, because most adults here hold papers written before the state separated from Bihar in 2000, by clerks from the same belt, and that belt turns v into b and adds a final h. Next, pick the spelling on your Class 10 certificate and make every other record match it. Not the one you like best. The one the oldest board record carries.
The One Test That Settles a Hindi to English Name Spelling Difference
Take out every paper that carries your name and look for one that prints it in Hindi as well as English. School records, board certificates and many Government forms carry both. Now read only the Hindi, on each paper, and compare.
| What the Hindi shows | What that means and what it needs |
|---|---|
| The Hindi is identical on every paper and only the English letters differ | This is a transliteration drift. Your name never changed and nobody made a mistake about who you are. It is a wrongly written name, and the correction route is the one to take, not a change of name |
| The Hindi itself differs, for example one paper has a letter another does not | That is a real difference in the name, not a spelling drift, and it has to be settled on the papers before anything is applied for. Do not treat it as a typing error |
| Only one paper carries Hindi at all | Use it as the reference and compare the English on the rest against it. One Hindi entry is still better evidence of the sound of your name than four English guesses at it |
| No paper carries Hindi | Then fall back on the oldest board record, usually the Class 10 certificate, and treat its English spelling as the anchor. That is the position offices take anyway |
| The Hindi is the same but the name order differs, for example the surname printed first on one paper | A different problem altogether, and a smaller one. It is about the order of the fields, not the spelling of the letters, and it is usually fixed at the counter that printed it wrongly |
Eleven Hindi to English Letter Pairs That Split One Name Into Two Spellings
Hindi is written in a script where one letter stands for one sound. English is not. So when a Hindi name is written in English, several letters have no single right answer, and two clerks writing the same name honestly can produce two spellings. Find your own name in this table. Almost everybody does.
| The sound in Hindi | The English spellings it produces, with examples |
|---|---|
| 1. The v sound, which English can write three ways | v, w or b. Vikas and Bikash. Vinod and Binod. Vijay and Bijay. Vishwanath, Vishvanath and Bishwanath. Ravi and Rabi. This single sound causes more spelling splits in Jharkhand than any other |
| 2. The sh sound and the s sound, which are two different letters in Hindi but get swapped in English | sh or s. Suresh and Sures. Shashi and Sashi. Ashok and Asok. Careful here, because the two are not the same letter in Hindi, and this is where half of Jharkhand goes wrong. See the note below this table |
| 3. The ksh sound | ksh, x or kch. Lakshmi and Laxmi. Lakshman and Laxman. Raksha and Raxa. All are the same name and the x is simply a shortcut |
| 4. The ri sound, a vowel English does not have | ri, ru or ree. Krishna, Krushna and Krishan. Mrityunjay and Mritunjay. Amrit and Amrut |
| 5. The y sound at the start of a name | y or j. Yadav and Jadav. Yamuna and Jamuna. Yogendra and Jogendra. A strong feature of this belt and an old one |
| 6. The long ee vowel | ee or i. Suneeta and Sunita. Geeta and Gita. Neeraj and Niraj. Raveena and Ravina |
| 7. The long oo vowel | oo or u. Anoop and Anup. Roopa and Rupa. Sooraj and Suraj. Poonam and Punam |
| 8. The silent a at the end, which Hindi writes but does not always say | written or dropped. Ram and Rama. Anand and Ananda. Mohan and Mohana. Both are correct readings of the same Hindi, which is why offices see both |
| 9. The nasal sound before a consonant | n, m or ng. Sanjay and Sanjai. Anshu, Ansu and Anshoo. Kunwar and Kunvar. Pankaj and Punkaj |
| 10. The breathy consonants, where Hindi has a pair and English has one letter | h kept or dropped. Sudhir and Sudir. Madhu and Madu. Bhola and Bola. Radha and Rada. The h is not decoration, it is a different Hindi letter |
| 11. The a after k or m, written long or short | a or aa. Kumar and Kumaar. Ram and Raam. Rakesh and Raakesh. Note that an added aa is very often deliberate rather than accidental, which is a different case again |
Why Name Spellings in Jharkhand Drift in One Particular Direction
Spelling drift is everywhere in India, but it is not random. In each region it leans the same way, because the clerks writing the records grew up speaking the same way. In Jharkhand and the old Bihar belt the lean is easy to see once you know what to look for.
| The drift | What you see on real Jharkhand papers |
|---|---|
| v turns into b | Bikash for Vikas. Binod for Vinod. Bijay for Vijay. Bishwanath for Vishwanath. Rabi for Ravi. This is the single commonest split we see on files from this state, and a family will often hold both forms without ever having noticed |
| An h is added to a final s | Vikash for Vikas, Nibash for Nivas, Srinibash for Srinivas. The habit comes from names that genuinely end in sh, and it spreads to names that do not |
| y turns into j at the start | Jadav for Yadav, Jamuna for Yamuna, Jogendra for Yogendra. Older records carry this far more often than new ones |
| The final a is written out | Rama, Krishna, Mahendra written as Mahendraa on some older registers. A reader who spells out every letter of the Hindi produces this |
| Pre 2000 records were written under a different board | Jharkhand separated from Bihar in 2000. Anyone who sat Class 10 before that holds a Bihar School Examination Board certificate, not a JAC one, so the oldest and most important spelling in the family file was often set in Patna and not in Ranchi. Our JAC certificate name correction page explains which board actually holds your record |
| Tribal and Sadri surnames follow their own rules | A tribal surname is not a Hindi word being written in English, so the pairs on this page do not apply to it. Those have their own page, tribal surname spelling correction, and mixing the two is a mistake |
Which English Spelling of Your Name Should Become the Correct One
This is the decision the whole file turns on, and it should be made once, in writing, before a single application is sent. Most of the money wasted on name spelling work is spent by people who changed their mind halfway through.
| The rule | Why it is the rule |
|---|---|
| 1. Start from the oldest board record, which for most people is the Class 10 certificate | Because it is the paper every later record was copied from, and because the Department of Publication itself names the 10th certificate and the birth certificate as proof of an old name. An office comparing your papers will reach for the same one |
| 2. Check it against your Hindi | If the Class 10 English spelling matches the Hindi on the same certificate, the decision is made and there is nothing to argue about. Where it does not, you have a stronger case for the other spelling, and that case should be written down |
| 3. Count, but do not vote | Count how many records carry each spelling, because that tells you how much work each choice means. It does not decide the answer. Five wrong records do not outrank one correct board certificate |
| 4. Look at what is coming up next | If a recruitment verification, a passport or a property paper is near, the spelling those will be checked against matters more than your preference. Our page on name correction before JSSC and JPSC verification covers the timing |
| 5. Do not improve the name while you are at it | Adding a letter for numerology, dropping a caste surname or shortening a long name are real changes, and the moment you do one the whole file stops being a correction. Fix the spelling first. Change the name later, separately, if you still want to |
| 6. Write the final spelling on paper, letter by letter | With the spacing you want. Then use exactly that in every form. A single application typed from memory undoes the work |
How to Fix a Hindi to English Name Spelling Difference in Jharkhand, Step by Step
Lay every paper out and read the Hindi
Board certificates, birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, bank passbook, voter card and service book. Write down which spelling each one carries. If any paper prints Hindi, read that first, because it is the original and the English is the copy.
Name the drift
Match the difference against the eleven pairs above. Being able to say this is the v and b drift or this is the added h turns a vague complaint into a clear application.
Fix the final spelling once
Start from the Class 10 certificate, check it against the Hindi, and write the answer out letter by letter. Do not improve the name while you are at it, because that makes it a change of name.
Correct the board record first if the board is wrong
Everything later was copied from it. Correcting Aadhaar first and the board later means doing Aadhaar twice. The route is on our education documents page.
Use correction wording, never change of name wording
The words are wrongly written as, with both spellings quoted exactly as printed and the statement that both refer to one and the same person. Never write that you have changed your name.
Publish a public notice only where an office asks for one
Not before. Many offices correct a spelling on their own record against a board certificate and an affidavit, with nothing published at all. Ask each office in writing what it needs.
Work outwards from the hardest record
Board, then birth certificate, then PAN, then Aadhaar, then bank, employer and the rest. Each one wants the corrected paper above it in the list, so the order saves whole visits.
Keep a received stamp on every application
On your own copy, every time. Without it an application never happened, and a spelling file usually touches six or seven offices before it is finished.
The general spelling router is on our name spelling correction in Jharkhand page, the affidavit wording on the name change affidavit page, and the published notice route on the public notice for a wrongly written name page.
Central Gazette Process for a Name From Jharkhand, and Which Proforma a Spelling Uses
No district in Jharkhand has a gazette counter, so the file goes from Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Deoghar or anywhere else in the state to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, and the notice publishes in Part IV of the Gazette of India. As reported in July 2025 the Finance Department stopped personal name change notifications from the Jharkhand Government Press with immediate effect, so there is no state alternative to fall back on.
The Eight Steps of a Name File Sent From Jharkhand
Settle the final spelling first
Write it out letter by letter, with the spacing you want, and then use exactly that in every paper. A corrigendum after publication is a second fee and a second wait.
Pick the category, then its proforma
For a spelling drift this is the public notice for a wrongly written name, whose proforma opens "HAS BEEN WRONGLY WRITTEN AS". Twelve categories exist and only one is yours, and picking the wrong one is how files come back.
Type the proforma in duplicate
Two originals, with two witnesses giving signature, full name, address and mobile number on both copies. A public notice is signed in your own name, because nothing is changing.
Quote the wrong spelling exactly as printed
Letter for letter, from each certificate named. The proforma supports listing several names or documents with their correct versions respectively, so one notice can cover more than one paper.
Publish and keep the original paper
One of the daily local leading newspapers, the matter showing the details of the case, carrying both spellings in full, the father or husband name and the address. The whole original paper goes in the file, not a cutting.
Pay only through BharatKosh
The Non Tax Receipt Portal and nowhere else since October 2018. Select the Department of Publication by name, read the amount the portal shows on the day, pay in your own name and print the e-receipt.
Check every date, then post it yourself
Nothing in the file older than one year. Personally or by post or courier only, never through an agent or advocate. Photocopy everything first, because nothing sent in comes back.
Read the notice, then download it
Check both spellings letter by letter the day it publishes, note the page and issue number, and download the e-Gazette copy of that Part IV issue.
The Five Papers in the File, and What Is Checked in Each
| The paper | What is checked in it, clause by clause |
|---|---|
| 1. The proforma, in duplicate | That it is the public notice format and not the change of name one; your name as your documents carry it; the wrong spelling quoted exactly as printed on each certificate named; the correct spelling; the father or husband name; the full address with pin code; the certificate that other legal requirements have been complied with; two witnesses complete with signature, full name, address and mobile number |
| 2. The undertaking | Signed by the applicant, carrying the correct and the wrong spelling, the father or husband name and the address, matching the proforma word for word; on Rs 100 non-judicial stamp paper as our safe default |
| 3. The original newspaper | The original paper, not a cutting; the paper name and date of publication visible; both spellings carried; the matter showing the details of the case; dated within the last year |
| 4. Photographs, identity proof and the connected document | Two self attested passport photographs; self attested identity and address proof matching the proforma address; both witnesses proofs; and the attested photocopy of the connected document, meaning the certificate that actually carries the wrong spelling. This last paper is the one a change of name file never needs and a public notice file always does |
| 5. The CD, its certificate and the BharatKosh receipt | MS Word, without the witness portion, with the name typed in place of the signature; the certificate that the hard copy and the soft copy are the same; the forwarding letter to the Controller of Publication with a telephone number and email; the e-receipt |
The posting detail is on the sending the file to Delhi page, the exact wording on the public notice proforma format page, the charge by category on the fee and undertaking page, the reasons files come back on the rejection reasons page, and the download on the download page.
What Fixing a Hindi to English Spelling Difference Costs in Jharkhand
| Item | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Where the office corrects on its own record, which is most cases | The office own charge, and often nothing at all beyond an affidavit. No publication, no gazette | Set by the office. We do not print a timeline we have not verified |
| The affidavit | Rs 100 non-judicial stamp paper as our safe default, plus the notary charge. Make two originals, because the office keeps the one you hand in | The same day |
| Board or school correction | The board or institution own charge, plus Rs 10 for an RTI application where an admission register page has to be obtained that way. We never print the JAC correction fee, because the figures circulating online belong to other boards | Set by the board |
| Government printing charge, only where a published notice is asked for | The guidelines print Rs 1,400 for a public notice for FY 2016 to 2017, against Rs 1,100 for an adult change of name, and every category adds that the charge varies each financial year and from case to case. Treat these as the order of the amount. What BharatKosh shows on the payment screen the day you pay is the figure that counts | Part IV publishes weekly, so allow several weeks from posting |
| Newspaper, in a public notice case only | Paid to the paper, charged by length. One original advertisement is what the guidelines ask for, and a second paper is office practice rather than a stated rule | Same week |
| Post or courier to Delhi, in a public notice case only | Sent in your own name from any district, and keep the receipt | A few days each way |
| Updating the records afterwards | Aadhaar charges a fee per attempt with no refund, and PAN, bank and the rest have their own small charges | Several weeks across all of them |
| Our charge | Quoted on your papers before you pay anything, and confirmed in writing. We print no service price on any page of this site | |
For a spelling drift the honest total is usually a stamp paper, a notary and a few office charges. The expensive version is the one where somebody sells a change of name file for a difference between Vikas and Vikash. Our name change cost page sets out the line items in full.
Send the papers and we will read the Hindi
Photograph the Class 10 certificate on the side that prints the name in Hindi, if yours does, because that one picture usually settles the whole case. Then the Class 12 certificate, the birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, the bank passbook page and the voter card. Our first reply tells you which of the eleven drifts you have, which spelling your own papers point to, and whether any office in your list will need a published notice at all. Where the answer is that a simple affidavit and an application will do it, we will say so, even though it is the smaller job. Details on the contact page.
- 📞Call 9540005002
Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM - WhatsApp 9540005064
Send your scans here, it is the fastest way - ✉️info@jharkhandnamechange.com
- 📍Ranchi office: Main Building, Near Shaheed Chowk, Ranchi, Jharkhand 834001
- 🏛️Head office (Gazette filing desk): Metro Pillar No. 377, Near Burari Metro Station, Shop No. B-1, Ground Floor, Gali No. 1, Khasra No. 31/12, Hardev Nagar, Jharoda Majra, Burari, Delhi 110084
Myths About a Hindi to English Name Spelling Difference
| What people are told | What is actually so |
|---|---|
| Vikash and Vikas are two different names | In Hindi they are one name, written the same way. Only the English letters differ. That is why the correction route applies and the change of name route does not |
| You need a gazette change of name for a spelling difference | You almost never need a gazette at all, and where a notice is genuinely asked for, the category is the public notice for a wrongly written name. The change of name form says henceforth be known as, which is not true of you |
| There is an official correct English spelling of your name | Not for personal names. India has a national romanisation system, the Hunterian system, but it is used for place names and bibliographies and no office decides your case by it. Your documents decide it |
| Whichever spelling appears on most documents wins | Counting tells you how much work each choice means, not which is right. One board certificate outranks five later copies of it, because they were all copied from it |
| Update Aadhaar first because it is the quickest | The quickest is the wrong place to start. Aadhaar and the bank will both be corrected against the board certificate, so if the board record is the wrong one, correcting Aadhaar first means correcting it twice |
| An h at the end is always wrong | Not at all. Prakash and Akash genuinely end in the sh sound and Vikas does not. The h is right in some names and wrong in others, and the Hindi on your certificate is what tells you which |
| While correcting the spelling you may as well add a letter for luck | The moment you add a letter you are taking a name you did not have, and the whole file stops being a correction and becomes a change of name, with a different form, a different fee and a different proof burden |
| The affidavit should say you changed your name | It should say the opposite. Wrongly written as, both spellings quoted as printed, both being one and the same person, and no sentence claiming a change |
Key Terms in a Hindi to English Name Spelling Case
| Term | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Transliteration | Writing a name from one script into another by its sound. Hindi to English is transliteration, not translation, and it is where the drift happens |
| Transliteration drift | Two honest English spellings of one Hindi name, produced by two clerks at two times. The subject of this whole page |
| Wrongly written name | The Department of Publication's own category for a name written incorrectly on a record. Its proforma opens "HAS BEEN WRONGLY WRITTEN AS" and nothing about a change appears in it |
| Change of name | Taking a name you did not have before. Its proforma says henceforth be known as and it is signed in the old name. This is not what a spelling drift is |
| One and the same person | A declaration that two spellings belong to one person. The line an office actually needs from your affidavit |
| Anchor document | The record every other record was copied from, which for most people is the Class 10 certificate. Fix this one and the rest follow |
| Hunterian system | India's national system for writing Indian words in English letters, adopted by the Government of India. Used for place names and bibliographies, not applied to personal names on records |
| Schwa | The short a sound that Hindi writes at the end of a word but often does not pronounce. The reason Ram and Rama are both readings of one spelling |
| Aspirated consonant | A Hindi letter written in English with an added h, as in Sudhir or Madhu. Dropping that h is not a small thing, it is a different Hindi letter |
| Public notice | The published category for a wrongly written name. Signed in your own name, because nothing is changing, and it needs the certificate carrying the error attached |
| Connected document | The attested photocopy of the certificate that actually carries the wrong spelling. A public notice file always needs it and a change of name file never does |
| Received stamp | The office acknowledgement on your own copy of the application. Without it, an application never happened |
Name Spelling Correction Help Across Jharkhand
The board office, the notary and the Registrar are in your own district, and that part is local wherever you live. Reading the Hindi on your certificates, naming the drift, and telling you which spelling your own papers point to is done on your scans over WhatsApp, for every district in the state.
District pages are linked from the services page.
Hindi to English Name Spelling Difference: Frequently Asked Questions
My marksheet says Vikash and my Aadhaar says Vikas. Are these two names?
Which is correct, Vikas or Vikash?
Why does my name start with B on one paper and V on another?
Do I need a gazette notification for a spelling difference?
Is there an official correct English spelling of Indian names?
Which spelling should I keep when my papers disagree?
Should I correct Aadhaar first since it is quickest?
What exactly should the affidavit say?
My Class 10 and Class 12 certificates carry different spellings. Where do I start?
Can I fix the spelling and add a letter for numerology at the same time?
Does this page apply to a tribal surname like Oraon or Hembrom?
What does it cost to fix a spelling drift?
Official Sources on Name Spelling and Transliteration
- Department of PublicationThe office that publishes the twelve guideline categories and their proformas, including the public notice for a wrongly written name and the separate change of name category.
- The Gazette of IndiaWhere a published notice appears, in Part IV, and where a published notice can be searched and downloaded afterwards.
- BharatKosh, the Non Tax Receipt PortalThe only route for the Government printing charge since October 2018, and the only place the amount of the day can be read.
- List of Indian Proper Names under the Hunterian systemOn the Ministry of Culture Indian Culture portal, showing the Hunterian rules for spelling and transliteration as applied to places and proper names.
- Jharkhand Academic CouncilThe board that holds and corrects a Jharkhand school record, for anyone who sat the examination after the state was formed.
- Bihar School Examination BoardThe board that holds the Class 10 record for anyone in this region who sat the examination before 2000, when Jharkhand was part of Bihar.
- Unique Identification Authority of IndiaFor what Aadhaar accepts as proof when a name spelling is corrected, and the limits on how often a name may be updated.
- JharSewa, the Jharkhand Government service portalWhere Jharkhand certificates are applied for, and where a corrected spelling has to be carried through afterwards.
A Hindi to English Spelling Difference in Eight Lines
The short version
- Read the Hindi on your certificates before you read the English.
- Same Hindi and different English means the spelling drifted, not the name.
- That makes it a wrongly written name, never a change of name.
- Eleven letter pairs cause almost every split, starting with v, w and b.
- In this belt v becomes b and an h gets added to a final s.
- Pick the spelling on the Class 10 certificate and check it against the Hindi.
- Correct the board record first, then work outwards to Aadhaar and the bank.
- Do not add a letter while correcting, because that makes it a new name.
Send the certificate that prints your name in Hindi, and we will tell you which spelling your own papers point to.
One photograph usually settles a question families have carried for years. We will also tell you plainly when no gazette is needed, which is most of the time.