Naam Karan

Naam Karan is the ceremony Sikhs hold in order to name their children.

Steps of the ceremony[]

As soon as the family is ready to undertake this ceremony, the father or another senior member of the family makes contact with their local Gurdwara for this brief ceremony. On the day of the Naam Karan, the family all invited guests the mother, and baby attend the normal weekly kirtan of the Saadh Sangat of the congregation. The family makes arrangements to have Karah Prasad said for the occasion. Various Shabads of thanks, joy, and support are sung followed by the short Anand Sahib (6 pauris). Then, if a Sahaj Paath has been arranged, the bhog of this reading takes place.

Then comes the main part of the ceremony, which is the naming of the baby. The ardas is done in the normal way with a request to God (the one God we all share, not a specific Guru as was previously written in this space) to grant the child good health; make him or her a dedicated Sewadar of the country and Panth; to enlighten the name of his family and Dharma; and to ask for a name for the child.

The Ardas is followed by the Hukamnama. When the Hukamnama is taken, the first letter of the first word of the Hukam is the letter to be used to give the name to the child. So, for example, if the first word of the Hukam is "Sagal", the child's name should start with "S" (i.e., the first letter).

Once the name for the baby has been chosen, the word "Kaur" is added to the names of girls and the name "Singh" is added to the names of boys. The Gyani will pronounce the name of the child in the Sangat.

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