Its a girl! When do you name her? When should you throw the
party? After eight days, two weeks, a month? As opposed to a
brit, circumcision, of a boy on the eighth day, there are no
explicit rituals for a girl. Instead, there are customs for a
Simchat Bat, celebration of a birth of a daughter. The Aramaic
words for Simchat Bat are Zeved Bat which means gift -- G-d gave
me a good present. Rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam), a 12th
century philosopher, explains the words to mean that this is a
good material or better yet this is a good branch -- that the
daughter is the mother of the family in which many other
branches stem. Naming a Baby Most Ashkenazi Jews name a baby
girl the first Sabbath after she is born, but its acceptable to
name her at any Torah reading (the Torah is read Monday and
Thursday mornings as well as holidays and the Sabbath). The
father is called up to the Torah and the child is given her
name. A special prayer is also said at this time for the well
being of the mother and daughter. The prayer