A Rooftop Baby Naming Ceremony in Long Island City

A few months ago, I had the honor of officiating a baby naming ceremony for a little girl named Isla. Her parents chose the same Long Island City rooftop where they’d married during COVID, when only a handful could attend. Coming back to that same spot, this time with their daughter and the space filled with family and friends, made the whole morning feel like something that had been a long time coming!

A Name with a Lot of Love Behind It

Because one parent is Ashkenazi and the other Sephardic, Isla’s naming intentionally blended distinct customs, creating a name that honors both lineages and their meanings. In Ashkenazi practice, it's customary to use the first initial of someone who has passed as a way of keeping their memory alive and passing their legacy to the next generation. Isla was named for her great-grandmother Ida, carrying forward her Hebrew name, Idit, into the Jewish community.

Following Sephardic custom of naming after living relatives, she also received middle names– Geri in English, after her grandfather Gerald, who was present that morning, and Golda in Hebrew. One little girl…and a name that carries both sides of her family's history!

The Kiddush Cup

One of the most moving parts of a baby naming ceremony is using the ritual objects families bring: a tallit that belonged to a grandparent, a piece of jewelry passed down through generations, or a prayer book with an ancestor's handwriting still visible inside.

For Isla's naming, we used a silver kiddush cup that had traveled from Germany before World War II—its patina carrying decades of memory. Holding that cup and using it to bless the sweetness of Isla’s birth felt like exactly what Jewish ritual is supposed to do: connect us to the people who came before us and remind us that we are part of a story much larger than ourselves.

Isla's poppy, a photographer, captured all of the happiness of the day on camera. It's always a gift when someone in the family can preserve these moments the way they deserve to be.

Planning a Baby Naming Ceremony

If you're expecting or have recently welcomed a new baby and are thinking about holding a Hebrew naming ceremony, I'd love to help you plan something that feels meaningful and true to your family's story! I officiate baby namings throughout New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Get in touch here and we can start the conversation!