Naming Ceremonies

[KLG3101]

We had a humanist wedding ceremony. Neither DH or I are particularly religious and I felt hypocritical getting married in a church. I do believe to a certain extent although I'm not sure what I believe. We have both been Christened and like the idea of having special people (like god parents) in our babies life.

What Are your thoughts on humanist naming ceremonies? I can't decide if I like the idea or of its a waste of time.

I had a naming day for my dd, we had it in a registry office and got to write the ceremony ourselves with their help. We were not allowed 'god parents' as religion couldn't be mentioned but we appointed guardians. We made parent promises and the guardians made promises too

We had our humanist wedding and a naming ceremony for DD at the same time.

We didn't want godparents but our celebrant did offer the idea of "guide parents" as a non-religious alternative, which would have been nice if we'd wanted some.

Obviously having our wedding at the same time made it an incredibly special ceremony for our whole family, but we'll definitely have a standalone one for DC2.

As a way of welcoming DD we did a mixing of sands: DH and I both got a little vial of sand from our childhood beaches, and we gathered some from the beach DD plays on, and it was all mixed together. We'll be using that "family" sand to add to when DC2 comes along and then it's going into the base of a particularly lovely baby oak tree we grew from a seed and planted in our garden.

Sounds a bit sentimental but it was lovely and quite unexpectedly moving for us and our initially sceptical family (half of which is quite traditional/religious).

That's my two cents worth anyway

We had a naming ceremony for DS straight after we got married, The only 'godparent' he has is one of my closest friends who is a Christian. The rest are mentors who are very close and trusted family friends.

Do it. We had naming ceremonies for both our children and it was such a special way to get all the families and friends together especially as we won't be marrying. Cousin loved it so much she fixed one up for her daughter the following year.

isn't it just an excuse to have a party and get presents for your kids?

We had a great Xmas/naming party- just a big welcome and connecting moment. We had food, dancing, cake and read a few poems, thanked everyone for their support when LO was born, that sort of thing. We said don't bother with pressies but people were so generous! I really am glad we did a message book and videod it though- nice to show her when she's older.