What a baby naming website does
A baby naming website announces her, holds the ceremony details, welcomes both sides of the family in one place, and gives the relatives who can't travel a home for their blessings. It's her first invitation to the wider circle of people who will love her, and it says, before anyone arrives, that this day matters as much as any other in the family.
Because a simchat bat or zeved habat isn't tied to the eighth day, you have room to design it beautifully. Parents aren't rushing an announcement out at midnight; they're choosing a Shabbat that suits the family, giving grandparents time to book flights, and letting a designer actually design. That extra breath shows in the finished site.
The page carries the practical layer (address, time, RSVP, kiddush, chesed the family has chosen instead of gifts) and the tender layer at the same time: her name in Hebrew and in English, a paragraph on the meaning her parents chose, a photograph that isn't for the internet at large, only for the people who love her. It reads like the family album on the first page.
Families who plan to have a son later often build both sites with the same studio, so a daughter's welcome and a brit milah website live under one memory link the whole extended family knows by heart. One home for the growing family, the way it should be.
What it's called: simchat bat, zeved habat, brit bat
The naming of a Jewish daughter carries several names, each with its own history and community. On the website we use the term your family uses, and translate it in one warm line for guests who don't know it yet.
- Simchat bat
- Hebrew for "celebration of the daughter." Ashkenazi and modern Israeli usage. A relatively recent ceremony, developed in the 20th century, that gives a daughter's welcome a public presence parallel to a son's brit.
- Zeved habat
- Judeo-Spanish for "gift of the daughter." Sephardi and Mizrahi tradition, ancient. Blessings from Song of Songs are recited over the baby. Often held at the synagogue on a Shabbat morning.
- Brit bat
- Hebrew for "covenant of the daughter." A term some progressive Jewish communities use, framing the celebration as a covenantal parallel to a son's brit milah.
- Baby naming
- The neutral English term some interfaith families and unaffiliated Jewish families use. It travels well across a guest list that mixes traditions.
- Kiddush (in this context)
- The celebratory reception after the ceremony: wine, bread, sweets, a full seudah when the family wants it, a joyful table either way.
This ceremony is typically held on a Shabbat morning at the synagogue or as a home gathering shortly after birth. Unlike a brit, it isn't tied to an eighth-day window, so families have real freedom in choosing when.
When to hold the ceremony
There is no single right day. The most traditional choice is the first Shabbat after birth, when the father is called up to the Torah and the daughter's name is announced from the bimah. Many families choose that Shabbat because it lands close to the birth and lets the naming carry the warmth of a very new baby in the room.
A Sephardi custom, still followed in many communities, holds the zeved habat around thirty days after birth. The mother has had time. The baby is more settled. The extended family can plan for travel. If your grandmother in another country needs three weeks to book a flight, thirty days is a gift.
Other families wait longer, sometimes several months, until the mother feels ready to host or the weather makes travel kinder. There is real Jewish precedent for a considered pace here. Whatever you decide, the website flexes: we can quietly change the date on the page while the family holds it privately, and open the site to guests only when you're ready to send the link.
What to put on the website
The complete checklist, in the order guests look for it:
- Her name, in Hebrew script and in English, announced when the family is ready to share it publicly (many families hold the name until the ceremony itself, and the site can hold it too).
- The meaning of the name, in a short warm paragraph in the parents' voice. This is the section relatives read twice.
- The parents, and, if the family wants, the grandparents. Names, not roles.
- The date and time. Shabbat morning, a Sunday brunch, a Sunday evening: whichever you've chosen, stated clearly.
- The location: the synagogue name and address with a map, or the home with parking notes.
- Who is officiating: the rabbi, a grandparent, or a parent themselves. Say it plainly; guests wonder.
- The honors, if you've planned them: who is called to the Torah, who recites the blessings, who reads the poem or letter written for her.
- The seudah or kiddush, with a friendly note on what to expect (bread and wine, or a full lunch, or a dessert reception; every choice is right for a different family).
- RSVP, with meal choices and dietary needs. A very small ceremony still benefits from real numbers for the caterer.
- Gift or chesed information. Many families ask, instead of gifts, that guests support a cause the parents have chosen in her name: a scholarship, a food bank, a mikvah fund. We give it a dignified, optional place.
- A photo-sharing wall for after, so every guest's phone photos collect at the same link the family already knows.
Announcement copy adapts naturally between the naming ceremony and a brit; our guide to brit milah announcement wording gives you a starting point, and the private photo etiquette in sharing newborn photos privately applies here just as it does for a son.
The meaning of the name
The paragraph explaining her name is the section relatives will read twice, and the one that lands with a friend of the family who never met the grandmother she's named for. Keep it in your own voice. Short is fine. Two examples families have used, adapted for privacy, to show the range:
We named her Naomi Simcha after her great-grandmother, Simcha, who arrived in this country with nothing and left it with a family of thirty-two. Naomi means "pleasant" in Hebrew, and Simcha means "joy," and we hope she carries both, though if she inherits her great-grandmother's stubbornness we won't be surprised either.
Her name is Ayelet Shachar, "gazelle of the dawn," from the opening of Psalm 22. We chose it for the image and for the sound. She was born just before sunrise, which we didn't plan and which felt, when it happened, like it had already been decided.
Write it the week before the ceremony, not the morning of. Read it aloud to the person you married; if you both cry, it's the right paragraph. If it feels stiff, cut the second sentence and see if it breathes. The website will hold whatever you write with the seriousness it deserves.
For interfaith families and Jewish-adjacent celebrations
A baby naming website can hold a ceremony that spans traditions gracefully. Interfaith families, families where one parent is Jewish and the other is a loved witness from a different tradition, families whose grandparents came from three different religious worlds: all of them can build a page that honors every strand without one feeling like a footnote to another.
In practice this often looks like a Jewish naming ceremony (the Hebrew name announced, the blessing recited, the paragraph on meaning) sitting alongside a Christian dedication or a family blessing from a grandparent's tradition. Each element gets its own short section on the page, with its own vocabulary explained kindly. Guests from each side of the family arrive knowing what to expect, and nobody has to guess whether they belong.
Our approach is to write the site with both families in the room. If your father-in-law will read a Bible passage after the Torah reading, the page names both. If the ceremony is Jewish and the reception is where the extended family gathers around a christening cake baked by a grandmother, the page names that too. Warmth is specific, not vague.
Her name is chosen. The website takes a week.
Tell us about the ceremony you're planning; we'll reply within 24 hours with ideas and a design proposal within 72.
For a brother, later
If your family will one day welcome a son, the same studio can build his brit milah site as a sibling to hers, in the same design language, at the same memory link the whole extended family already knows. The eighth-day rush of a brit is a very different feeling from the calm of a baby naming, and the two pages read differently on purpose, but they belong to the same growing family and the site can show it.
When that time comes, our brit milah website page covers the eighth-day timing, the honors, and the private photo etiquette specific to the ceremony. Families who plan both often keep both pages online for years, quietly, as a small archive.
Questions parents ask
What is a simchat bat?+
Simchat bat means 'celebration of the daughter' in Hebrew. It's the naming ceremony for a Jewish baby girl, giving her welcome a public presence parallel to a boy's brit milah. The ceremony was developed in the 20th century in Ashkenazi and modern Israeli communities, though Sephardi tradition has celebrated the birth of daughters for centuries through the zeved habat. Both are lovely, and both deserve a beautiful website.
When should the naming ceremony be held?+
There isn't a fixed eighth-day rule. Many families hold the ceremony on the first Shabbat after birth, when the father is called up to the Torah and the daughter's name is announced. Others wait 30 days (a Sephardi custom), or until the mother feels ready. The website is flexible; whichever date you choose, we build around it.
What should go on a baby naming website?+
Her name and its meaning, the date and time, the location (synagogue or home), the honors your family has planned, the seudah or kiddush afterward, RSVP, and any gift or chesed information. A photo of her, warm and private, opens the page. After the ceremony, a photo-sharing wall collects the day.
Can a baby naming website work for an interfaith family?+
Yes, gracefully. A well-designed site holds a Jewish naming and a family gathering that spans traditions in the same welcoming without any tradition feeling like a footnote. We've built sites for families where a simchat bat sits alongside a Christian dedication or a family blessing, and each element is honored on its own terms.
We design celebration websites for families across the English-speaking world: brits, baby namings, bar and bat mitzvahs, engagements and weddings. Updated July 2026.