Naming ceromony for my dc

[jofeb04]

Hiya
Im not religious (as had a civil ceromony for our wedding etc), and dont want to get our dd and ds christened etc. However, we do want something just for them, their day.
I like the idea of a naming ceromony, still has the equivilent of god-parents, someone to take care if anything ever happened to me and dh etc.
Has anyone had one?
Thanks

Yes we had one on ds3's first birthday. It was arranged through the Humanist Society website,\link{http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/\here}, I just e-mailed them for a contact. He visited us a few weeks before and gave us a protype ceremony to amend.

We held it in the garden, and had my sisters (not baptised so they coldn't be God Parents) as odd parents (our choice of term- my sisters fir it well). They read promises to be loyal to DS3, and to be there if he needed them. DH read a poem called your name', as DS3 is named after my FIL and a poem about a name being handed down was appropriate. I read one called 'follow your dreams', and we had reading from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It ended with a champagne (OK, Cava ) toast and a cake cutting.

The only low point was when DS1 changed the music playing on the PC to our Gun n Roses stuff- DS3 was named to Mr Brownstone!!!!

Go for it if it is what you want. tell any annoyed relatives it dopesn't preclude a Baptism in the future, that got us off the hook without promising anything.

Our local registry office does a naming ceremony, perhaps you could check out yours, however, they are quite pricy!!

You can just go ahead and organise something you like for yourself, you don't have to have anyone official there.

We are also lacking in any particular faith but are keen to have a day in honour of our DD, we've decided to simply invite all our friends/loved ones to my IL's house in the country for drinks and nibbles.. We'll tell everyone how grateful we are and let them know how much we value their presence in our DD life.

It seems cheaper and much more personal. Although I'd love to have some sort of recognised ceremony, I don't think it's necessary, I mean the LO wouldn't really remember it and I'd find it difficult to meet everyone's beliefs/needs..if that makes sense?

If you aren't adverse to making speeches it is ideal.. You can organise all the music etc yourself, and when the weather is warmer you can have a BBQ (fairly cheap and easy!)

Really must start planning our day.
HTH x

We've had them for our DS and DD. They were held seperately by the Registrar - contact your local Registry Office to see if they do them. They will hold a joint one for siblings.

I liked the casual formality of it - like a fun wedding; everyone came (doubt we would have been able to get all the relatives together for a party otherwise), got dressed up and read meaningful things but it was tailored to us. There were some things that 'had' to be said but other things we put in. DH explained why we had chosen one of their names, I explained the other. The 'supporting adults' read things and now one of them wants to be called a godparent (so he can explain his relationship to his non-UK friends), so they are all termed godparents.

One of DD's godparents is one of my closest friends so she will be a guardian in our wills. The others all seem pleased to have a relationship with their respective children. Whether this will be the case in years to come depends on the children and the adults.

We had sandwiches and cakes afterwards. The first time in the building where the ceremony took place by a local caterer, the second time in our house as we had more room.

They were very special days.