Naming ceremonies
Overview
When families are celebrating the birth of a new baby, they often feel the need for a special occasion to gather together their close family and friends.
One way this can be done is by holding a naming ceremony, designed to meet the individual needs of the family.
A naming ceremony is a very special way of celebrating your child's birth and welcoming the new arrival into the family.
It is also an opportunity to declare, before family and friends, your promise to be as good a parent as you can, and for adult friends or relatives chosen by you, to pledge their special relationship with your child.
A naming ceremony is, in every sense, a unique occasion for everyone to feel involved and to offer their support in your child's future development.
This event provides a dignified and formal opportunity to:
- Welcome the child into the family and wider community
- Announce the names that have been chosen, and maybe give the reasons behind the choice
- Make promises of commitment to nurture and support the child into adult life
- Choose other adults prepared to promise a special supportive relationship to the child
- Reflect on the miracle of birth and recognise that children are society's hope for the future
Additional sections
You can choose to add any following additional sections:
- Reasons for the names
- Hopes for the future
- Parents' vows to each other
- Grandparents' promises
- Absent guests
- Further readings
- Presentation of a gift to the child
As you can see, there is plenty of scope for making your child's ceremony a very personal and unique event.
Any parent can arrange a naming ceremony, whether married or not, with any spiritual or religious beliefs or with none or from any cultural background.
Children of any age can have a naming ceremony, not just young babies. Ceremonies can also be used to celebrate adoptive children and stepchildren into a new relationship and form part of the family bonding within an extended family unit.
More than one child can be named in these ceremonies, but they must belong to the same family. Children from another family, even though they may be related, cannot be included in the same ceremony.