The short answer
They're the same sacrament. That's the whole answer, and everything else on this page is footnote.
Same water, same words of institution ("in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"), same theological result: a child (or an adult) is received into the Christian church. "Christening" is the older English word that emphasizes the naming of the child, the moment a person receives a Christian name. "Baptism" is the Greek-rooted term the New Testament itself uses, and it emphasizes the sacramental act, the pouring or the immersion.
If your priest performs a christening on Sunday and your cousin's priest performs a baptism next month, they've done exactly the same thing. A parish in London will call it a christening on the noticeboard and a baptism in the liturgy itself, without anyone thinking that's strange. A parish in Chicago will use "baptism" for both, and "christening" will sound a little British to the family.
So when you're writing the invitation, or the website, or the little card in the front of the album, the question isn't which word is correct. Both are correct. The question is which word your family uses at the kitchen table, and which word your guests will understand when it lands in their inbox. If you're building the site with us, we set the tone with your family's word and translate it for the guests who use the other one. Bespoke, private by default, multilingual if you need it.
The etymology
"Baptism" is Greek. The verb baptizein means to dip, to immerse, to plunge under water.
It's the word the earliest Christians used because Greek was the language they wrote in: Paul's letters, the four Gospels as they came down to us, the Acts of the Apostles, the book of Revelation. When John the Baptist called people to the Jordan, the Gospel writers reached for baptizein to describe what he did. The Latin liturgy borrowed the word directly, and so did every Romance language after it: baptême in French, bautismo in Spanish, battesimo in Italian, baptismo in Portuguese. In German, Taufe drops the Greek root but keeps the same idea of immersion.
"Christening", by contrast, is native English. It comes from Old English cristnian, "to make Christian", and it appears in written records more than a thousand years ago, when Anglo-Saxon families used it to describe what happened at the font: their baby was received into the church and, at the very same moment, given a Christian name. In the England of that period, the two acts were inseparable, so the word carried both meanings at once.
The word survived the Reformation because it was already so deeply embedded in family life. Village vicars used it. Prayer books used it. Novelists used it. And when the British empire carried English to Ireland, Australia, and North America, "christening" traveled with it, though it lived on more strongly in some places than others. In the United States, the Greek-rooted word won; in Britain and much of the Commonwealth, the Old English one held its ground.
The geography today
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, "christening" is the everyday word.
Grandparents use it. Newspaper birth announcements use it. The card shop stocks "christening" cards, not "baptism" cards. Even people who never set foot in a church know what a christening is: a baby, a font, a family lunch afterwards, and a cake with a cross on it. "Baptism" is understood, of course, but it sounds slightly more formal, slightly more ecclesiastical, more like something the priest says than something the mother says.
In the United States and English-speaking Canada, the picture is the opposite. "Baptism" is dominant almost everywhere, in nearly every denomination. Card shops stock "baptism" cards. Photographers advertise "baptism photography". "Christening" is understood, but it can sound a little British, a little vintage, a little Downton Abbey. Some American families do use it, particularly Irish American and English American families who inherited it from a grandparent, but they're a minority.
In continental Europe, none of this really applies. The local-language equivalents (bautismo, baptême, Taufe, chrzest) all correspond to "baptism", and none of them have a native cognate for "christening". So if your website will be read across the Atlantic and across the Channel, "baptism" is the safer default in the browser tab and the URL, while "christening" can still lead the invitation copy your British family reads. If you're inviting a mixed guest list, both words on the website, or a single friendly line acknowledging both, prevents the confusion before it happens.
The denomination angle
Denominational habits matter too, and they don't always follow the geography neatly.
Roman Catholic families are split. In the United States, Catholic parishes almost always say "baptism", on the parish website and in family speech. In Ireland, and among Catholic families in England, "christening" is warmer and more common at the kitchen table, though the liturgy itself always uses "baptism". A priest in Cork will happily preach at a christening and record it in the parish register as a baptism, and nobody thinks that's odd.
Anglican and Episcopal families use both, sometimes in the same sentence. Church of England parish life leans heavily toward "christening" for infant ceremonies; the Book of Common Prayer and the modern Common Worship rites both use "baptism". American Episcopal parishes usually say "baptism", though "christening" appears in family announcements. Adult baptisms are always "baptisms", regardless of parish or country.
Orthodox families almost always say "baptism", and often add "and chrismation", because the Eastern rite gives the anointing that follows a separate name: the child is baptized and chrismated in one continuous liturgy, at the same appointment, by the same priest. "Christening" is rare in Orthodox usage, though English-speaking parishes may use it in conversation with non-Orthodox visitors.
Baptist, Pentecostal, and other adult believer's baptism traditions use "baptism" and never "christening". For them the ceremony belongs to a person old enough to make their own profession of faith, so the "christening" language, so bound up with infants, doesn't fit the theology at all. If you're inviting friends across traditions, this is worth remembering; a Baptist cousin will read "christening" and quietly assume you mean infant baptism.
Which word should your invitation use?
Whichever your family uses in daily speech.
There's no wrong answer, and you don't have to pick just one. On a well-designed website, both words can happily coexist on different pages: the title tag might read "baptism" for search engines and international guests, the invitation card can say "we're christening our daughter", and the little sentence at the bottom of the RSVP page can bridge the two with something as light as "you'll hear both words this weekend; they mean the same thing."
If your guest list spans traditions, that transparency is a kindness. American cousins won't spend the flight wondering whether "christening" means something they've never heard of; British grandparents won't feel that "baptism" is trying to correct them. Bespoke design makes room for all of them, in a way a template drop-in never can.
If you're stuck on the copy itself, our guide to baptism invitation wording has adaptable examples in both registers, formal and warm, traditional and light. Your priest may also have wording your parish prefers, particularly in the Catholic and Anglican traditions where the liturgical text is fixed but the family invitation can travel freely around it.
The historical thing worth knowing
For most of English history, a baby's name and their baptism happened in the same moment.
There was no announcement post on Instagram, no engraved cards mailed six weeks in advance with the name in copperplate script, no big reveal at the gender party. Parents sometimes chose the name only in the days before the christening; sometimes they consulted the priest; sometimes the godparent whispered a name over the font. The name became public when the water touched the child's forehead and the priest pronounced it aloud. That's why the old English word for what happened at the font was "christening", "the making of a Christian", with the naming folded inside.
That world is mostly gone. Today's parents choose the name during pregnancy, register it at a government office within days of birth, and announce it on social media before the baby leaves the hospital. By the time the christening happens, the whole extended family already knows the child's name and has been calling them by it for weeks or months.
And yet the word "christening" survives, particularly in the countries where church and family life have been most tightly woven together. It survives because it holds a memory: of a time when the naming and the welcome were the same act, and of a moment in a young life that families still want to mark with the older, softer, more familial word. That's why "christening" so often feels warmer than "baptism" to families who love both, even though they mean the exact same thing.
For interfaith and non-religious families
Not every family is Christian, and not every baby ceremony is a christening.
If you and your partner come from different traditions, or if you're not religious at all, but you still want to gather friends and family to welcome your child, the right words are usually "naming ceremony" or "dedication". Both terms hold the celebration of a new person without invoking a sacrament. A naming ceremony can happen anywhere: a garden, a living room, a favorite restaurant, the top of a hill. A humanist celebrant, a family elder, or a close friend can lead it. The words are yours to write. There's no font, no priest, no liturgy, and no theological freight to explain to guests.
"Christening" isn't the word for this. Etymologically it means "to make Christian", so using it for a ceremony that isn't Christian can confuse religious relatives and feels awkward when the ceremony itself has no Christian content. "Baptism" is even less appropriate, since it names the sacrament directly.
If you're planning a Christian welcome by any name, our baptism website service holds the design and the copy for you. If you're planning a non-religious naming, we build those too, in the same private, bespoke, editorial style. Just tell us which one, and we'll match the tone from the first sentence.
Whichever word you use, we'll build the site around it.
Tell us about the day; we'll reply within 24 hours with ideas, a design direction, and a timeline.
Questions parents ask
What's the difference between a christening and a baptism?+
There isn't a theological difference; it's the same sacrament with two English words. 'Baptism' comes from Greek and emphasizes the immersion or pouring itself; 'christening' comes from Old English and emphasizes the naming that traditionally accompanied it. In American English 'baptism' is dominant almost everywhere; in the UK, Ireland, and Australia 'christening' remains common in family speech.
Is a christening religious?+
Yes, always. A christening is a Christian baptism by another name. If you're planning a non-religious welcoming ceremony for a baby, the correct term is 'naming ceremony' or 'dedication', not 'christening'. The word 'christen' shares its root with 'Christ'; a secular christening is a contradiction in terms.
Do Catholics say christening or baptism?+
It depends on which country. American Catholic families say 'baptism' almost universally. Irish and English Catholic families often say 'christening', though 'baptism' is used in the liturgy itself. Both are correct; use whichever your family uses in daily speech.
Do you have to be religious to have a christening?+
For an actual christening, yes; it's a Christian sacrament. Parents don't need to be devout, but they typically need to be baptized themselves (in the Catholic tradition) or affirm the Christian faith on behalf of the child (in the Anglican tradition). Non-religious families use a naming ceremony or dedication instead; those celebrate the child's welcome without invoking any religious sacrament.
We design celebration websites for families across the English-speaking world: baptisms and christenings, first communions, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs. Private by default, bespoke by design, multilingual on request. Updated July 2026.