Naming Ceremony - reading / Poems

[Mum1369]

Help.Anyone know any nice (non religous) readings or peoms for my Sons naming ceremony ?
Or excerpts from kids books ?

Any ideas ? Perhaps I am in the wrong topic ?

Last bump - anyone ???

We had You're by Sylvia Plath
And Kooks by David Bowie playing at the end

Hi, had naming ceremonies for DS aged 5 and DD aged 7.

For DS had beautiful boy by john lennon - very right on and very nice.
There was a reading, I will see if I can fish it out

For my DD, I will have to have a look back - it was a long time ago......

Thanks guys - I really need some tips. Am panicking royally about organising it.Am not following the formal humanist ceremony, it's going to be more like a party - with a little formal-type thingy at the beginning - you can see why I am panicking, not sorted this out in my head at all....

We had dh read daughters by Paul Simon adn my mother read something that she liked. You can have it as informal as you like, we had ours on dd first birthday with a gazebo tha garden, which was lucky as it was unseasonably hot,then we all drunk lots of wine.

I posted about this recently in Parties/Celebrations and a MNer called Portandlemon posted me loads of suggestions. I found my script from my eldests ceremony and used 2 readings from there for my youngests ceremony this weekend.

We did the same, had a party and the ceremony bit at the beginning. It went well and people seemed to like it.

I thanked everyone for coming and for the support since we had our baby, thanked specific people. Said the names we had chosen and why we had chosen them. Said who were going to be DSs guide parents and guardian and thanked them. Then I did my reading, DH did his reading and we played a song to finish.

HTH

Hiya
I have a book called Seasons of Life (which is published by the British Humanist Association) - it is basically a selection of religion-free poems and prose for funerals, weddings and namings - here's one by Siegfried Sassoon..
Go and be happy
You are born into the dazzling light of day
Go, and be wise
You are born upon an earth which needs new eyes
Go, and be strong
You are born into a world where love rights wrong
Go, and be brave
Possess your soul, which you alone can save.

THe book might be in stock in your local library, or there might be something similar (The Nation's Favourite Poems has some quite good stuff).

If by Rudyard Kipling always struck me as a good poem for a DS naming ceremony (less so for a DD unless you muck about with the last lines) though some people find it a bit too Tory for them.
Other good places to look for readings might be in feminist anthologies or collections of women's writing. There's another quite nice little collection called the Little Boy Book (published 1994 by Virgin, edited and compiled by Paula Yates but don't let that put you off) - yes, there is/was one called the Little Girl book, clearly marketed as gifts for new parents but nice anthologies with lots of potentially usable stuff in.
Also, what were both your own and your DPs favourite childhood books? There's usually a workable chunk of something in most kids' classics.
Good luck.

Thanks everyone for all the tips. Going to see if I can get some structure down this afternoon. I like 'IF' too - really positive I think, also 'A mothers wish' is really cute.
Thanks

Here is a site full of all sorts of poems about babies. Hope you find one you like!

www.babysite.org/babysite/sidene/poems.htm

Thanks for those !
WestCountryLass - I really like ' A Mothers Wish' - do you know who wrote it ???