Birth and naming

Hindu tradition marks life with samskaras, sacraments that sanctify each stage. At jatakarma, performed at birth, the father traditionally touches a little honey and ghee to the baby’s lips and whispers a sacred word into its ear. Namakarana, the naming ceremony, usually follows on the eleventh or twelfth day, often with a fire offering (havan) led by a priest, who may consult the child’s horoscope for an auspicious first syllable. Around six months, annaprashana gives the baby a first taste of rice, and in many families a first haircut (mundan) follows later as a further blessing.

Buddhism has no birth ceremony laid down in its scriptures, and practice follows local culture. In Theravada countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, parents often bring the baby to the monastery or invite monks home. The monks chant protective verses (paritta), sprinkle blessed water and may tie a white cotton thread around the child’s wrist. Families offer food to the monks, making merit on the child’s behalf, and a senior monk is sometimes asked to choose an auspicious name, guided by the day of the week on which the child was born. In Japan, many Buddhist families take newborns to a Shinto shrine instead.

Soon after a birth, when mother and baby are well enough, the family visits the gurdwara for Naam Karan, the naming ceremony. Hymns of thanksgiving are sung, and the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, is opened at random. The first letter of the hymn at the top of the left-hand page – the hukam, or divine command – becomes the initial of the child’s name, which the parents then choose and the congregation affirms. Girls receive the name Kaur, ‘princess’, and boys Singh, ‘lion’, names that express equality and set caste aside. The ceremony ends with the Ardas prayer and sweet karah prashad shared by all.

On the eighth day after birth, a Jewish boy is circumcised in the brit milah, ‘covenant of circumcision’, recalling God’s covenant with Abraham. A trained mohel performs the rite, at home or in the synagogue, with blessings over wine, and the boy’s Hebrew name is announced. Girls are traditionally named in the synagogue when their father is called to the Torah reading, and many families now also hold a simchat bat, ‘celebration of a daughter’, with songs and blessings. Where certain conditions apply, a firstborn son is ‘redeemed’ from a kohen, a man of priestly descent, at about thirty days old in the pidyon haben.

Most Christians – Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and others – baptise infants, often within the first months of life. Water is poured over the baby’s head or, in the Orthodox Church, the child is immersed three times ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Baptism is understood as entry into the Church and cleansing from sin. Parents and godparents make promises on the child’s behalf, and a lit candle and white garment are often given. Baptists and many Pentecostal and evangelical churches baptise only those old enough to profess faith, holding a dedication or blessing for babies instead.

The first words many Muslim babies hear are the call to prayer (adhan), softly spoken into the right ear, often followed by the iqama in the left. In tahnik, following the Prophet’s example, a little softened date is rubbed on the baby’s palate. On the seventh day, many families hold the aqiqah: the child is named, the head may be shaved and the weight of the hair given in silver to charity, and a sheep or goat is sacrificed – customarily two for a boy and one for a girl – with the meat shared among family and the poor. Boys are circumcised at an age that varies by culture.

The Bahá’í Faith deliberately keeps few rituals and prescribes no birth or naming ceremony. Parents choose the child’s name freely, and families often gather to give thanks and read prayers for children written by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, asking that the child may grow in virtue, knowledge and the love of God. Bahá’í teachings place great weight on the spiritual and moral education of children, which begins in the home and is supported by community classes open to all. Faith, however, is seen as a personal choice: at fifteen, the age of spiritual maturity, young people take on duties such as daily prayer and fasting for themselves.

Shinto rites surround birth from pregnancy onwards. In obi-iwai, in the fifth month, the mother-to-be visits a shrine on a ‘day of the dog’ – dogs being associated with easy births – to receive a blessed maternity sash. About a month after birth, the baby makes its first shrine visit, hatsumiyamairi or omiyamairi. Traditionally carried by the paternal grandmother and wrapped in a fine kimono, the child is presented to the local guardian kami (ujigami). A priest performs purification and recites a prayer (norito) for health and protection, and the baby is welcomed as a new member of the community under the kami’s care.

In Yoruba tradition a child is named about a week after birth at Ìsọmọlórúkọ, customarily on the seventh day for a girl and the ninth for a boy, though practice varies. An elder touches the baby’s lips with symbolic foods on a tray – water, honey, salt, palm oil, kola nut, bitter kola, alligator pepper – praying that life will be sweet, long and free of hardship. A child receives several names: some, such as Táíwò for a firstborn twin, are said to be ‘brought from heaven’ by the circumstances of birth. Families may also consult the Ifá oracle about the child’s destiny. Yoruba Christians and Muslims keep it too.

In classical Athens, a few days after a birth the household celebrated the Amphidromia, when the baby was carried around the hearth, the sacred centre of the home, and so received into the family; the child was often named on the tenth day. Romans held the dies lustricus, ‘day of purification’, on the eighth day for a girl and the ninth for a boy. Offerings were made, the child was named, and freeborn boys received a bulla, a protective amulet worn until adulthood, while girls wore a crescent-shaped lunula. Household gods and birth goddesses such as Juno Lucina were thanked for a safe delivery.