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Original poster

how do you go about a naming ceromony?

18 replies

lillysmum · 13/10/2004 18:10

I want to get my dd christened, but am not at all religious, and like the sound of a "naming ceromony" as I presume it has nothing to do with religion - but how do you go about organising one, and who conducts them? This is probably a stupid question, but I don't have a clue!!

OP posts:

Yorkiegirl · 13/10/2004 18:17

Message withdrawn

littlemel · 13/10/2004 18:19

so, does someone from the hotel do the "naming" bit, or do you have to do it yourself??!! Am I being really thick here?!

Yorkiegirl · 13/10/2004 18:20

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littlemel · 13/10/2004 18:21

ah!

Original poster

lillysmum · 13/10/2004 18:21

thanks, i never thought of that, i will do some investigating!!

OP posts:

WigWamBam · 13/10/2004 18:21

Contact the Humanist Society (sorry no address but try googling), they do a booklet which they will send you full of this info, also gives ideas for poems, readings and so on.

Yorkiegirl · 13/10/2004 18:22

Message withdrawn

aloha · 13/10/2004 18:49

You can get a celebrant from the Humanist society - we had one in our garden.

whizzz · 13/10/2004 18:51

I suppose its not like a ship - where you smash a bottle of champers ?????

Sorry - been one of those days !

NomDePlume · 13/10/2004 19:02

Arghhhhhhhhhhhh. Posted a big long answer and then MN dies when I posted it. Bum.

Anyway, the gist of it was that GeorginaA has just organised one for her DS2. I 'll alert her to this thread and hopefully she can help

luckymum · 13/10/2004 19:04

You can ask at the Registrar of Births & Deaths (where you registered your baby). I've been to one and the same registrar who married the couple, did the baby naming. You can have your own form of words, poetry, whatever you want as long as its not religious.

GeorginaA · 13/10/2004 19:07

Ooo... just seen this thread. Ours is next month for ds2

We contacted LifeRites - a not-for-profit organisation who specialise in many rites of passage occasions. They provide the celebrant, you provide the venue, they help you tailor a unique ceremony to welcome your little one to the world.

We've used them previously for ds1 and were really really happy with how it turned out. Hoping ds2's is as good

Original poster

lillysmum · 13/10/2004 19:09

Probably not like a ship, but i think i might like to smash a bottle of champers!! Thanks for all the advice!

OP posts:

popsycal · 13/10/2004 19:13

ring your local registry office - thing have a list of all the licensed venues in your area

ds had his as part of our wedding ceremony - lovely day

GeorginaA · 13/10/2004 19:16

PS, you don't need a licensed venue for a naming ceremony - it's non-religious & has no standing in the eyes of the State (unlike a marriage ceremony) so you can hold one wherever you want (as long as the owners let you on their land )

NomDePlume · 13/10/2004 19:17

Aghhhhhhhhhhhh, reminder that I have a bit of work to do for that......!

jacksmumto1 · 13/10/2004 19:44

We had a naming ceremony for ds1 and shared the day with a friend (for her dd) as she was also non-religious.

We trawled the internet for ideas and between us we put together a ceremony that firstly explained why we were having a naming ceremony and then we had a section for each child (for ds1 this was...) explaining our feelings for him, our thoughts on his name and we also chose to have our "special parents" (instead of godparents) to say a short vow of commitment. We then lit a candle of light for his life and had a toast to him. At the end of the overall ceremony we thanked everyone for coming and toasted both children. The speech was split up between me welcoming everyone; ds1's great-uncle doing 'our' section of the ceremony; friend starting her section of ceremony and then her dd's uncle finishing 'their' section off and finally friend did the toast to both children.

Our invitations were for a naming ceremony (we printed them on the computer) and I explained to all our guest's what the day was about.

We hired the local hall and decorated it ourselves with balloons and banners etc.. We also prepared a buffet and had a bar plus tea/coffee for those who wanted it. Neither of us had a big enough house/garden for everyone but the hall was attached to a large play field with park plus we were able to use the local toddler group's toys for the children so this worked in our favour.

Everyone enjoyed the day and commented on how special it was plus we didn't have extra costs of a celebrant. Just depends on whether you or a family member/friend are good at public speaking or not I guess!!

Hope this gives you some ideas!

WestCountryLass · 13/10/2004 21:08

DS had a naming ceremony on his first birthday, we organised ours using a Registrar from Births, Deahs, Marriages. They provided us with the ceremony format which was fab and included all the aspects we wanted, they had readings etc but you could swap them with anything you wanted and leave out things that weren't poignant or add in other things.

We held ours at the local leisure centre and used one of their function suites for the ceremony, the kids then did softplay and swimming and we stayed in the room for the food.

It was a lovely day and even my DHs Granny said she preferred it to a Christening and she is a churchgoer ;-)

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