Nemasket naming ceremonies are significant events for with most individuals receiving their spirit name before they reach full adulthood, but a person can receive it anytime. Spirit names involve ritual and ceremony.
First, an elder, or other ceremonial leader offers to seek a name. Then the task of seeking begins. This can be a long process, sometimes taking months and months before a name is revealed.
The name has to fit the person’s spirit. Helpers in this task are usually chosen by the person wanting the name, the parents of that person or the seeker of the name. When a name is decided upon, the naming ceremony begins.
Most of the time, the one who presents the name is the one to whom the task was given. The name is presented to the Ancestors in the four directions, and everyone who is in the ceremony has to say that name after it is presented.
Nemasket Nation 