Naming Ceremonies

Namings – Welcoming Someone Wonderful

A Humanist Naming Ceremony is a gorgeous opportunity to stop for a moment and celebrate a new person and the family and community surrounding them. I'll spend time getting to know your family, hearing the story behind your child's name, finding out about their emerging personality and talking about your hopes and wishes for their future. Together we can involve siblings, grandparents, chosen guideparents or supporting adults, create promises, choose readings and music and devise symbolic elements that have genuine meaning for your family. It can welcome a new baby, celebrate an adoption or older child, bring together a blended family or mark another important new chapter in family life. It can be one or more sibling in the same ceremony or maybe it's the perfect time to mark a new name for a trans person. The possibilities are endless and infinitely beautiful. Each ceremony tailored just for that one person to show them how much they are valued and loved.

And unlike a christening, there's no prescribed format and no religious commitment required. Your Naming Ceremony might be a beautiful, structured occasion at a hotel followed by afternoon tea, a relaxed gathering in your garden with children running around, or a huge family celebration with everyone involved. It can be sentimental, funny, stylish, informal and probably a little bit chaotic if babies and small children have anything to do with it! That's absolutely fine. A Humanist Naming isn't about expecting a child to believe something before they're old enough to decide for themselves. It's about saying: “We're so glad you're here. These are your people. You are loved. And we'll be here for you as you find your own way through life.”