What do you write in an obituary for a child?

The same shape, with school instead of work and friends instead of colleagues: name and age, birth and parents, what they were like in specific detail, survivors beginning with parents and siblings, the service, and where donations should go.

How do you list survivors for a young person?

Parents first, then siblings with their ages, then grandparents, then “and a great many cousins, teammates and friends”. Grandparents who died before are named under “preceded in death by”.

Is there an obituary for a stillborn baby?

Yes, and it is usually short: the name, the date, the parents, the siblings and grandparents, and one sentence. Many families include weight and length as a birth announcement would have.

Writing an obituary for a child or a young person

The standard format assumes a career, a marriage and a long list of survivors, and for a young person almost none of that applies. What is left is better, and harder: the specifics. This page is about writing those.

Fill in the obituary The standard format

What changes, and what stays the same

The life section is not work and marriage — it is school, the team, the instrument, the friends, the things they were good at and the things they found funny.
Detail carries this obituary. “He could name every player on the 2019 roster” tells a reader more than any general praise.
The survivors are usually listed the other way round: parents first, then siblings, then grandparents.
“Preceded in death by” often includes grandparents, and the phrase does a kindness — it puts the child with someone.
Age is written plainly: “aged 9”, “a senior at Northside High”, “a sophomore at the University of Iowa”.
Donations are commonly directed to a school fund, a team, a scholarship set up in the name, or the hospital that cared for them.

A worked example

Ellie Marie Sandoval, 9, of Bloomington, Indiana, died on April 12, 2026, at Riley Hospital for Children, with her mom and dad beside her.
Ellie was born on March 2, 2017, in Bloomington, to Marcus and Andrea Sandoval. She was a fourth grader at Fairview Elementary, where she read at a middle-school level and made a point of not showing off about it.
She played left wing for the Bloomington Blaze, drew horses on everything including her homework, and had opinions about pancakes. She was the child who noticed the new kid at the lunch table. She kept a list of the names she planned to give her future dogs — there were eleven — and she was still adding to it in March.
She is survived by her parents, Marcus and Andrea; her brother, Theo, 6; her grandparents, Ramón and Carmen Sandoval and Julie Hart; and a great many cousins, teammates and friends. She was preceded in death by her grandfather, Michael Hart, whose birthday she shared.
A celebration of Ellie's life will be held at Fairview Elementary on Saturday, April 18, at 11:00 a.m. Her family asks that you wear something bright.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ellie Sandoval reading fund at Fairview Elementary.

You do not have to be eloquent. The most-read obituaries for young people are made of small, exact, ordinary things — the sandwich they always ordered, the joke they wore out, the way they said a word.

Writing about a stillbirth or an infant

A notice for a baby is short and it is still an obituary. The name, the date, the parents, the siblings, the grandparents, and one true sentence: “She was held by everyone who loved her.” Many families print the weight and length, as they would have in a birth announcement, and that is right — it is the only announcement there will be.

There is no expectation of length. Four sentences in a newspaper and a printed card for the service is a complete and dignified record.

When the death was by suicide or overdose

More families now name it, and say why: because silence has a cost, and because the notice reaches people who need to read it. “Died by suicide” and “died of an overdose” are plain and increasingly common. Others write “died unexpectedly”, which is equally correct.

Where a family does name it, a closing line often points outward: “If you are struggling, please tell someone today.” That is the family's choice to make, and either way the rest of the obituary should be about the person's life, which is the part nobody else can write.

Questions families ask

What do you write in an obituary for a child?: The same shape, with school instead of work and friends instead of colleagues: name and age, birth and parents, what they were like in specific detail, survivors beginning with parents and siblings, the service, and where donations should go.
How do you list survivors for a young person?: Parents first, then siblings with their ages, then grandparents, then “and a great many cousins, teammates and friends”. Grandparents who died before are named under “preceded in death by”.
Is there an obituary for a stillborn baby?: Yes, and it is usually short: the name, the date, the parents, the siblings and grandparents, and one sentence. Many families include weight and length as a birth announcement would have.

This page is offered for informational purposes only. It is not legal, medical or funeral-directing advice, and no warranty is given as to its accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. Where a detail matters — a date, a rank, a service time — confirm it with the funeral home, the church or the family before it is printed.

The other situations

Print it into a program the family keeps

Enter the details once — the same words make the program, the prayer cards, the bookmarks and the thank-you cards, print-ready in minutes. From $29.

Start the program