In the Ashkenazi community, namegiving ceremonies for newborn girls were not widespread and often limited to the father announcing the baby's name in the synagogue on the Shabbat, Monday, Thursday or other occasion when the Torah would be read following the birth. Sometimes a kiddush will be held at the synagogue for family and friends. Although ceremonies can be found in Ashkenazic sources. Rabbi Yacov Emden includes a text in his famous prayer book. In the 20th century, interest in traditional ceremonies for welcoming baby girls has been revived, and new ceremonies have evolved. These ceremonies are often known under the newly coined termssimchat bat or a brit bat. There is no explicit source in the Mishnah or Talmud specifying when girls should be named. In medieval times, girls were named during shavua habat. In early GermanJewish communities, a baby naming ceremony was developed for both girls and boys called a Hollekreisch, in which the children received their secular names. The ritual took place after Shabbat lunch. The babies were dressed up, and boys were draped in a tallit. The book of Vayikra was placed in the crib. The crib would then be lifted up and the following recited in German: "Hollekreisch! How shall the baby be called? So-and-so So-and-so So-and-so." Nuts, sweets and fruits were then distributed to the guests. The custom applied to both boys and girls. This ceremony was widely observed in Jewish circles in Germany as early as the 14th century. In the 17th century this custom was observed in naming boys and girls only in South Germany, while in Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Poland it was not used for boys, and only rarely for girls.
In the Sephardi community the zeved habat is usually celebrated within the first month of the birth. It is held privately in the synagogue or at a party at home. It is often led by the ḥakhám or hazzan. The main elements of the ceremony are the mother's thanksgiving for deliverance ; the recital of Song of Songs ; and the namegiving prayer itself in the form of Mi sheberakh . Additional elements may include Psalm 128 and the Priestly Blessing.
Mi sheberakh blessing
The words in parentheses are recited in the Moroccan Jewish community. Many Ashkenazi communities use a prayer for the health of a mother and newborn, recited by someone called up to read from the Torah scroll, as an opportunity to name a baby girl.
New ceremonies
The Simchat Bat or Brit Bat are now becoming more common. The celebration typically consists of a communal welcoming, a naming done over a cup of wine with the quotation of appropriate Biblical verses, and traditional blessings. Moreh Derekh, the rabbi's manual of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, presents a ceremony based on traditional Jewish forms, with a number of options that parents may choose to perform: Lighting seven candles and holding the baby towards them, Wrapping the baby in the four corners of a tallit, or Lifting the baby and touching her hands to a Torah scroll.
