The Baby Naming Ceremony

A couple of weeks ago we held a naming ceremony for our baby boy. Something we thought would be quite easy to arrange after all it’s hardly a new idea, or so we thought. It turns out that it is less common that we thought - apart from the couple who gave us the idea non of our guests had ever been to one before.
Essentially a baby naming ceremony is rather like a christening, but without the religious elements. Basically we rented a local village hall for the Sunday afternoon and had a short ceremony (about 10 minutes) which consisted of a couple of poems, an explanation of why we chose the names we did and some promises about how we are going to bring him up and a musical interlude. We followed that with a buffet.

What surprised me however is how few people have seen running baby naming ceremonies as a business opportunity, yet so many county and district councils have spotted the opportunity and are charging up to £300 to perform the ceremony.

Not just that but there’s great scope to produce related products; guest books, decorations, books of suggested readings or possible programmes for the day (if you do-it-yourself) or even gift lists (we never expected gifts but a lot of people brought them) and smart baby clothes.