Humanist Naming Ceremonies  With Celebrant Paul

Non-Religious Service

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Feel free to contact Celebrant Paul, to plan your Naming ceremony.

What is a humanist naming ceremony

Many families choose to have a non-religious naming ceremony as they want their children to be free to make their own choices about what they believe as they grow up. Instead of prayers or hymns humanist naming ceremonies are full of love, respect, empathy, and kindness – the values that all humanists share.

What Celebrant Paul offers.

My aim is to help each family I work with to create a unique and meaningful naming ceremony. Naming ceremonies can be held to welcome new additions to a family – and that can include adopted children.
My job, as a humanist naming celebrant, is to work collaboratively with you to deliver a ceremony that will live long in the memory.
This usually means at least one face-to-face meeting where I gather information about the child and the wider family. We’ll discuss who else might be involved in the ceremony – for instance, delivering a reading, playing music etc. Some couples like to include a symbolic or cultural act, such as sand blending, candle lighting, tree planting etc. Many couples encourage their guests to contribute special ‘wishes’ for the child which can be collected in a souvenir scrapbook.

What a Humanist Naming Ceremony can include.

The following elements are used to create a basic structure for a humanist naming ceremony:

• Introductions and welcomes

• Reading, poem or song

• Information about the child – their arrival, personality, interests so far

• Words about the importance and responsibility of parenting

• Parental promises to the child

• Reading or poem

• Importance of wider family (e.g. grandparents, cousins, etc.)

• Appointment of guideparents

• Guideparents’ promises

• Reasons for the choice of name

• The naming itself (various forms are possible)

• Optional symbolic act (such as candle lighting, sand blending, planting a tree)

• Concluding words