“I don’t know whether they should say

    ‘ You have a baby’

or 

          ‘The baby has you’ ”  ~  anonymous

As Nana to five grandchildren, I know how special the arrival of a new child to the family is, you want everybody to meet the baby/child, but don’t necessarily want a religious ceremony.   Lockdown has created a bit of a baby boom, but oh so sad there were no celebrations for their arrival, so now is the time to give them a great big welcome to all your family and friends.  Many of our namings are for toddlers, who haven’t had any sort of formal welcome to the family, and 1st and 2nd birthdays seem to be a popular time for such a celebration.

Baby namings are a great alternative to religious namings, they formally welcome a new baby or child into the family without committing to a faith.

So what’s involved in a naming ceremony?

Naming ceremonies are fairly informal and as other children often attend, the ceremonies rarely last longer than 30 minutes, although there is no time limit for your own personal ceremony.

A naming ceremony is all about a family and their child’s uniqueness.  The journey of the arrival of child, the reason the name was chosen, parents hopes and dreams for the future of their child and how they envisage themselves as parents.

Parents and supporting adults (also sometimes known as guide-parents, mentors, guardians or even odd parents), can make promises about their role in the child’s life.  Often brothers and sisters or grandparents want to be a part of this, so readings, poems and music (I’ve had a granny play a medley of nursery rhymes on the piano), can be included.

Many families I work with want a presentation of a special gift to the child or some type of symbolic act, signing of Jenga bricks, hanging of wishes on a wishing tree, or something meaningful to them, are also included in the ceremony.

My charge for a naming ceremony is £250, (available in instalments if you’d prefer), dependent on the amount of travel involved expenses may be added.

That much I hear you say!  Well really it’s not a lot when you know what you’re getting…  A lengthy meeting to hear all about your child and what’s going to be your ideal ceremony. Be prepared to be chatting for a couple of hours.  I can help you with the writing promises if needed and suggest readings and symbolic actions.

I write a totally bespoke script for your ceremony, which you can edit (or ask me to) as many times as you like via email, until we have the perfect script.

Then of course on the big day itself, you’ll have me there to present the script, just so you know, babies are unreliable –that messy

nappy or feed they want just as you’re about to walk out of the door, so I never book more than one ceremony a day!

After the ceremony you’ll receive a copy of the final draft and a certificate for you to put into your keepsake box.

If you would like to book for a naming ceremony or just want more information on naming ceremonies, please do contact me…email: janet.humanist@gmail.com or for a chat 07887724591.

What people say about my Naming Ceremonies…

Janet made Finley’s name day perfect! She kept in contact with us throughout the planning and the script she wrote was amazing and so personal. All of our guests said what a lovely ceremony it was and how special the day was. I would definitely recommend Janet and a naming ceremony to anyone! (May 2022)

‘Janet was amazing and so thorough. She visited me and we sat for a couple of hours whilst she got to understand my son and our family’s story. She pieces together a wonderful script and I worked with her to get it perfect. She was very patient and lovely to work with and she delivered an exceptionally personal and well-presented ceremony. I could not recommend enough! Thank you so much Janet! X’

Zoom Ceremony a second naming ceremony for this family!….’We can’t thank you enough for the wonderful ceremony you created and conducted.  In such an unusual time, you took it in your stride and once again you gave us the most perfect day.  Everyone has commented on how wonderful it was.  You are incredible.’  (August 2020)

‘Janet was fantastic, her attention to detail was second to none. She put a lot of effort into making the ceremony suits us all as a family. The delivery was perfect, she is so friendly, patient and put us at ease when it came to doing our own readings. I will definitely be back in contact with her for any future family celebrations or official ceremonies.’ (September 2019)

‘We had a naming ceremony for both our daughters. It was wonderful to be able to formally recognise them and to celebrate them in a personal way (with our two year old hanging upside for most of it!). Janet constructed a lovely ceremony that was very much enjoyed by all.’  (June 2019)

‘Brilliant experience from start to finish. The ceremony was better than we ever expected and everyone commented on how personal and relaxed it was.’ – (June 2019)

‘Janet surpasses all expectations. The ceremony was so personal and so warm. Janet did an amazing job and I would highly recommend her. She was thoughtful in her writing and was very professional throughout our time organising the ceremony.’ (April 2019)

‘Janet was amazing. She really captured our lives and values and shared them with our friends and family in a really personable way. The service was everything we wanted – we’re so happy’.  (3rd March 2019)

‘It was a lovely day. All about our daughter which is just what we wanted! So many comments from our guests on how great the ceremony was!’

‘Janet was great – really good communications in the lead up to the ceremony, a great script and she was fab on the actual day – really helped us create a special event to celebrate our little boy.’

‘Janet, we would just like to thank you for all your hard work leading up to and on the day of Lois’ naming ceremony.  We really enjoyed the day and the ceremony you did for us was exactly how we wanted it. Also, thanks very much for Lois’ gift the certificate and a copy of the days script is firmly framed for years to come.’  Ben and Sara.

‘Janet Brilliant, everyone enjoyed it. Thank you so much again – we’ll be in touch for no.2! (not for a while!)’  Rebecca and Paul

‘Thankyou for your incredible help with the ceremony, everyone loved it and said how it was so suited our family’ Kate and Tim

“We had so many people genuinely complimenting us on how personal and touching the ceremony was. We were really happy with the day. Also there were so many people who commented on the fact that they did not realise that there was an alternative to having a christening and said that they would definitely have a humanist ceremony as and when they had children as they loved the fact that it removed religion from the occasion (the majority of my friends aren’t religious) and made the whole affair so much more meaningful and personal. Rob and I are definitely happy that we chose to have a humanist ceremony. Thank you xx” Saskia and Rob 

‘A huge thank you once again for putting together such a wonderful ceremony yesterday, it was just perfect! Everyone commented on how personal the ceremony was, it was really well received and enjoyed by all!  Charlotte seemed to enjoy her day as did all our lovely guests. We really couldn’t have chosen anyone better to help organise and conduct Charlotte’s special day and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you to anyone who is interested in having a humanist ceremony.’ Olivia and Paul