naming ceremony - who, where and what ?

[babababa280810]

I'd really like to have a non religious celebration to mark my daughter arrival. Ideally I'd like to celebrate at home as we have a large garden perfect for parties -

Has anyone done this? Did you get someone to do a 'service'?

Any info would be very helpful

We're planning one for our DD in the summer.

We're having it at our house and we're planning to get a Humanist to come and say a few words.

details of Humanists

When my friend has hers she planted a tree in the back garden for her DC which was a really nice touch.

I hope your day runs smoothly.

I combined a naming ceromony with DD1s 1st birthday party. I'm actually Christian but don't like the idea of subscribing a child to one faith - I want my DCs to choose their own path. I hired a church hall and invited family/friends. My two sisters and parents spoke about their hopes for DD1 in the future and my pastor prayed for me to give me wisdom and strength to be a good parent. It was a fantastic day and very meanigful.
A friend had a naming ceremony for her son and she had a book where she got guests to write little notes about her son and what they hoped for his future which I wish I'd done as it is a lovely keepsake.
You can do naming ceromonies with a registrar if you want something more formal.

We're having a naming ceremony for DS2 in our local town hall which is absolutely beautiful, followed by a party in a village hall.

We are using the registrar who conducts weddings to do ours.

However, you can get anyone to do it (i.e. a friend) as they have no legal standing. I'm actually acting at a celebrant for a friend in the summer.

Do you have a wet weather plan if it rains?!

Pink do you mind me asking how much you paid?

We have done a naming ceremony for both DC, here's a rough version of what we did, we did it at around 6 months for both of them

Hired a room somewhere (in a resteraunt for one, community centre for the other)

asked my dad to 'host' the whole thing - he's really good at speaches / public speaking etc, he welcommed everyone, explained why we were there / what a naming ceremony was (which he had to ask me! )

We chose a couple to be the equivalent of godparents - we never did find another name that we liked, first time around we called them mentors - but they have just become godparents over the years

me / DH talked about the DC, why we chose the name etc

'godparents' make a speach - promises to DC

all grandparents were offered the chance to do the same, some did - some not

then me / dh made promises to DC, and talked of our hopes for them

second time around DD also made promises to her brother, something like I promise to let you drink your milk and share my toys!

We had a guest book each time for people to put a message in for the DC

and this time around we also lit a chinese lantern and asked everyone to make a wish for DS as it went up. Close family were also given one to take home and do (as it wasn't quite the right weather to be doing them all)

We have always really enjoyed them, put on a bit of a spread after - everyone loves it!

Wow - sounds great - thanks guys.

Really want to do it now - you have all made it sound wonderful.

We did a naming ceremony for DD's first birthday.

In the end, we had it done at the town hall (although it has no legal worth & could be conducted by anyone) because this was much cheaper than the Humanists! Afterwards we all had tea/cava & cake at my SIL's much bigger house - basically a party. It was lovely to get all the people we could together & celebrate.

Will definitely do another one for DC2.