A compact multiband‐notched printed ultra‐wideband (UWB) coplanar waveguide (CPW)‐fed slot antenna is presented. The band notched characteristic is achieved by creating quarter‐wavelength stubs in the ground plane. These stubs act as stop‐band filters along the feed line over certain narrow frequency bands. Addition of each stub to the antenna structure creates an extra independent notch band. Antenna with single, dual, triple, quadruple, and penta notch bands can be created by this technique. The notch bands can be chosen from practical frequency bands such as 3.5 GHz WiMAX, 5.2 and 5.8 GHz WLAN, 7.25–7.75 GHz for the downlink of X‐band satellite communication systems, and ITU at 8.2 GHz band all within the UWB range. Each of the notch bands can be tuned in frequency independently. The antenna has a small size (24 × 27 × 0.8 mm³), and almost stable omnidirectional radiation pattern. The prototype of the antenna is fabricated, and the measured results are in good agreement with the simulations. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:2121–2126, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26998