Hebrew headstone wording
Fill in the details and the wording builds as you type: the Hebrew lines for a man or a woman, with the Hebrew date, and the English lines under them. Copy it for the monument maker, or print it for the family.
Choose a man or a woman, so the Hebrew is written correctly.
The father’s name is customary; some families add the mother’s, or use hers alone.
No Hebrew keyboard? Tap the letters:
Only a death between sunset and midnight moves to the next Hebrew date. After midnight the civil date has already changed, so leave this unticked.
The lines in English
Stones outside Israel usually carry the same details in English under the Hebrew.
The wording
Type the Hebrew name to see the wording.
What you type stays on your device: nothing is sent or saved.
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How the wording is built
The Hebrew follows the structure most Jewish headstones share, from the top: פ״נ (po nikbar, “here lies”) or פ״ט (po tamun, “here is buried”); the Hebrew name; ben or bat (“son of”, “daughter of”) with the father’s name, and the mother’s if you wish; the Hebrew date of death; and ת.נ.צ.ב.ה at the bottom. The English lines go beneath. There is no single required text, and every line can be changed. The structure, and ideas for the epitaph, are in our guide to what to write on a headstone.
The Hebrew date is worked out from the civil date with the same calendar as the yahrzeit calculator, and written the way headstones write it: the day in Hebrew letters, the month, and the year without the thousands. In a leap year it says Adar I or Adar II, by the month of the death.
What to check before ordering
Treat the wording as a good draft, not as approval. Every letter is carved in stone, so ask someone who reads Hebrew well to go through it, and ask the monument maker for a proof. Some cemeteries prepare the Hebrew themselves from the details you give, and some ask a rabbi to sign it; ask yours. When the stone is set, and the unveiling.
Common questions
What do you write on a Jewish headstone?
Usually: פ״נ at the top, the Hebrew name with ben or bat and the father’s name, the Hebrew date of death, and ת.נ.צ.ב.ה at the bottom, with the name, the dates and a line or two in English beneath. Cemeteries and burial societies set their own rules on languages, size and photographs.
How is the Hebrew date written on a headstone?
The day in Hebrew letters, the month, and the year without the thousands, for example נפטר בי״ב באייר תשפ״ו (“died on 12 Iyar 5786”). If the death was between sunset and midnight, the Hebrew date is the next day’s. Some stones write נלב״ע (“taken to his or her eternal home”) instead of נפטר.
Father’s name or mother’s name?
Most stones give the father’s: “ben Avraham”, “bat Yosef”. Some families add the mother’s, “bat Avraham ve-Rivka”, and some give hers alone. Follow your family’s custom.
What do the letters ת.נ.צ.ב.ה mean?
“May his (her) soul be bound up in the bond of life.” Some stones write it תנצב״ה, with a double mark instead of dots. Both are customary.
Do you keep what I type?
No. The wording is built in your browser, and no name or date is sent to us or put in the page’s address.