The Naming of Children

I write about a colourful naming ceremony which held its own sacredness.

A friend of ours has a daughter who is pregnant. Her pregnancy is being marked by imported rituals - balloons being burst to reveal genders and the showering of gifts. This leads us to conclude that the name she chooses will be similarly ‘on trend.’

Here’s hoping she won’t go down the route of choosing a surname for a first name in an attempt to be unique. The naming of children is a serious business.

Naming Ceremony

That’s why there are ceremonies to mark it – christenings, naming day. Recently, I delivered a naming ceremony for my niece and nephew.

When I was fed up with writing a few years ago, I trained as a celebrant. Comes in handy at times like this. I wrote up a ceremony and delivered it in a sunny living room with a view of the sea.

Naming Rituals

A naming ceremony is quite like a christening. There’s a reading and people make promises. But on this occasion the reading was from Dr Seuss and the promises were made by guide parents, a secular name for godparents. Satan was noticeably absent from said promises.

Photo Description: In white writing on a blue background, there’s a quote from the Dr Seuss reading. The quote says: You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

A naming ceremony goes further than a name. It’s full of rituals that bind families and celebrate children.

The children’s parents presented a picture made from pebbles, showing a family of two adults and two children. The picture captured the idea that the family would always have a home in each other.

People were also invited to place cards and small gifts into two memory boxes, one for each child. The children will be able to open them when they’re older and make the happy discovery that there are loads of people who are mad about them and cheering them on from the sidelines.

Sacredness of Naming

Towards the end, I spoke about the value and power of the children’s names, names that are modern, but not gimmicky, short simple names that fit them like a glove.

The ceremony was riotous, colourful and mercifully short, given that there were nine children n the room, seven of them under five. But it held its own sacredness.

The naming of children recognises their uniqueness, their origins and where they’re going. It brings them into being.