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A naming ceremony for your baby or child provides a wonderful opportunity to welcome a child into a family and for adults involved, from parents to grandparents, to acknowledge their responsibilities to the child.
These ceremonies can be held at any Registration Office, any Approved Premise (licensed for civil marriages and civil partnerships) or any other suitable location e.g. at home or in your garden for example. Basically the only restrictions are the availability of both a Registration Officer and the location.
Depending on the Local Authority and the Registration service in an given area usually any day including Bank Holidays may be booked, but on a Sunday naming ceremonies can not be held in a Registration Office due to those offices at least at present being shut.
Times offered vary across the country so please contact the appropriate Registration Office for details.
The script's for these ceremonies again are usually written especially for you, with family and friends being encouraged to take an active part.
Naming ceremonies are secular (non-religious) ceremonies without and legality. All venues nationwide that have been granted an approved venue licence to hold marriages and civil partnerships are able to hold a naming ceremony and there are now over 4800 of these across England and Wales and are all listed on the site.
It's entirely up to you as to how you would like the ceremony to be organised but they usually last about 20-30 minutes.
During the ceremony there are many different options availablethough in general they will include the parent(s) statement of love and commitment to their child and declarations of hopes for their future. The ceremonies can include poetry or a favourite piece of prose, with music options throughout playing in the background.
Rather than godparents, whose traditional role is to help guide the child in a Christian life, 'supporting adults' or 'mentors' (who may be friends or family) just need to say that they will be there for the child as he or she grows up and throughout their life in whatever way is needed.
The ceremony, may include an introduction and welcome followed by a reading by you or one of the supporting adults. This is followed by the naming of the child and the parents' promise and promises of the supporting adults to pledge love and support for the child's future.
Naming ceremonies are not legally binding and do not have any legal status, although you may be presented with a record of the ceremony as a token of the day.
The ceremonies by nature of it being a ceremony is a formal occasion however it can be a very relaxed but including structure to the gathering. It is a gathering of friends and family together to celebrate the birth and naming of your child.
The onsite search facility is a full text search for finding a venue. You can use a variety of search methods: venue name, address, telephone area code, post code, description text, town or city etc. etc.
For more information on conducting a civil ceremony and Local Authority contact names and numbers visit www.civilceremonies.co.uk.