Namings & Welcoming Ceremonies

New baby or older child – and you’re eager to introduce them to your family, relatives and friends?

Well you’re so right to be proud of your child and so right to want to show them off to everyone.

We humans have always wanted to make a bit of a fuss over our new family members and we have used a whole variety of ways to do so over the centuries.

In today’s world there is now an opportunity to do it in a loving and secular (non religious) way by using a Humanist UK trained Naming celebrant.

What I offer

If you’re looking for a fabulous, totally personalised and joyous welcome for your new child, get in contact so I can tell you know how I can help.

My naming ceremonies are designed to be happy but meaningful at the same time.  It’s not just about having fun, it’s also a way of recognising the huge amount of love, effort and dedication by parents, close family and ‘Guide Parents’ that goes into bringing up a child.

With two ‘children’ of my own and four grandchildren, I love kids and passionately feel that new children should get a wonderful welcome to the world and true recognition within the family.

 

“As my (now) wife and I met many celebrants as we were planning our wedding, we instantly connected with Oliver and knew we wanted him to conduct our wedding ceremony. What we hadn’t fully envisaged was the attention to detail, support and grace that he gave us; Oliver genuinely helped take some of the stress away from many parts of the wedding day we were planning. We so enjoyed working with him, that Oliver has now performed the naming ceremonies for our two children! He is sewn into the fabric of some of the most important moments of our lives, and we couldn’t be more thankful for this.” Ed & Mohini

Who are Namings for?

These ceremonies are very flexible and can be for a new child, for older children and for more than one child at a time (even from more than one family at a time!).

If you have a new partner and already have children, this is also a nice way to celebrate the children’s role in your new family unit.

 

So what’s involved?

Each ceremony is different because it’s designed around the child and reflects what you want as their parents.  However, here is a common pattern for a naming ceremony …

• A big welcome to everyone
• An introductory story about your wonderful child 
• What you aspire to as parents and what you wish for your child
• Readings, music and funny stories from relatives and friends
• ‘Guide-parents’ promises for your child
• The formal naming itself.
• Symbolic gestures to welcome your child e.g. balloon releases, candle lighting, sand-mixing, tree planting and so on
• The big promise from all your guests to look out for your child in their life ahead.

 

How Long and Where?

• Most Naming ceremonies last around 20 – 30 minutes (so as not to challenge the attention span of all the children present)
• In terms of location – almost anywhere that feels meaningful and is convenient such as in your home or garden (or at the grandparents!), in the local park, at the local community or sports centre, a local pub or hotel etc.

 

What happens next?

If this sounds interesting to you, drop me an email or give me a call and we can arrange a time for me to come round and meet with you and your family.

I will get to understand what you want and give you some ideas about what could happen during the ceremony

If you then decide that you’d like me to conduct the Naming, I will go ahead and write a draft of the ceremony script for you to have a look at.

It’s all very simple to organise and it’s a wonderful way to introduce your child to the world, so give me a call and get ready for a truly moving ceremony and a whole lot of fun!