Gemstones have been mined, traded, and worn as protection for thousands of years, and the names that grew out of them carry some of that history with them. This list gathers 100 of them, from stones you would recognize in a jewelry case to minerals most people have never heard said out loud. “A jewel name can give a baby everlasting blessings, because jewels are so long-lasting,” says Inbaal Honigman, a baby-name commentator.
Four of these names sit inside the current U.S. top 100 for girls: Iris at #61, Ruby at #64, Emery at #74, and Jade at #95, according to Social Security Administration birth data for 2025 (1). Onyx is the fastest climber of the group, up roughly 926% when the last ten years of births are set against the ten before them.
At the other end, 26 names here have never reached the five births in a year that the SSA needs before it will publish a name at all. Every entry below carries its current U.S. standing, its meaning, and where the word itself came from, so you can tell a shortlist favorite from a true one-off.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Iris, Ruby, Emery, Jade and Margot.
100 Beautiful Names That Mean Crystal or Gemstone
These gemstone baby names will steal your heart in no time.
Agate
Agate is a banded blend of chalcedony and quartz that turns up in almost every color a stone can manage, usually with a waxy luster and white streaking; it forms as nodules inside volcanic rock, which is why it is one of the most common materials in ancient hardstone carving. Greek jewelers set it, warriors carried agate seal stones, and early Islamic belief held that it lengthened life. As a first name it reads gentle rather than geological, and the French A-GAT keeps it well clear of the rock cabinet.
- Origin: Greek, Old French
- Meaning: Kind, one who lived at the gate
- Pronunciation: A-GAT (French), a-gha-teh (Basque)
- Popularity: Agate has never reached the five births in a year that the U.S. Social Security Administration needs before it will publish a name, so it carries no American ranking at all.
Akoya
Akoya is the Japanese term for pearls grown in the Akoya-gai mollusk, natural and cultured alike. The sound is light and open, three easy syllables a small child can say long before they can spell them. Voice actress Akoya Sogi carries it in Japan. If pearls appeal but Pearl itself feels too plain, this gives you the same idea with none of the vintage weight, and it sits comfortably in a middle-name slot.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: ah-koy-yah
- Namesakes: Akoya Sogi, born Yasuyo Sogi, a Japanese voice actress.
- Popularity: Akoya has surfaced in U.S. birth records only a handful of times, 15 births in all since 2009, and its last listing was #15,647 in 2019.
Alexandrite
Alexandrite is one of June’s alternative birthstones, the others being moonstone and pearl. Alexandrite is a very rare mineral variety of chrysoberyl, which changes color depending on the type of ambient lighting. It’s best known for displaying an emerald color by day and ruby red by night. Popular belief is that it was discovered in Russia’s Ural Mountains by a Finnish mineralogist and named in honor of Tsar Alexander II.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Defender and protector of mankind
- Pronunciation: al-ig-ZAN-driet
- Variations: Alexander
- Popularity: Alexandrite sits below the SSA’s five-births publication line, so no U.S. ranking exists for it.
Allira
Allira comes from an Australian Aboriginal word for quartz crystal. The rhythm is gentle, three syllables that land softly and never demand attention. Handball player Allira Hudson-Gofers and soccer player Allira Toby both carry it in Australia. The spelling stretches easily into Allirah, Alliera, or Alleira if you want something a little less expected.
- Origin: Australian Aboriginal
- Meaning: Quartz crystal, gem quartz
- Pronunciation: Ah-leer-uh
- Variations: Allirah, Allihra, Allyra, Alliera, Alleira
- Namesakes: Allira Hudson-Gofers, an Australian handball player. Allira Toby, an Australian soccer player.
- Popularity: Allira is new to American records, first listed in 2023 and sitting at #15,059 in 2025.
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin, warm and translucent, and people have been picking it up off beaches and carving it for as long as there have been beaches to walk. The word arrived through the Arabic ambar, for a jewel, and the material occurs in white, pale lemon yellow, brownish-orange, and a near black. Actress Amber Valletta and singer Amber Liu are among its modern bearers. It had an enormous run in the 1980s and has eased a long way back since, which is exactly the window in which a name stops feeling dated and starts feeling like a decision. Amberlee and Amberlynn wait inside it if you want something longer.
- Origin: Arabic, French
- Meaning: Amber-color, yellowish-orange
- Pronunciation: AM-bur
- Variations: Ambre, Ambra, Aamber, Ambar
- Namesakes: Amber Evangeline Valletta, an American actress and model. Amber Josephine Liu, an American singer, rapper, and songwriter.
- Popularity: Amber ranked #520 in the U.S. in 2025 with 576 girls, a long way from the #13 it held in 1986. Use is down about 56% on the previous decade.
Ambre
Ambre is the French spelling of Amber, and it behaves the way French spellings usually do: same idea, softer landing. The final consonant nearly disappears, which gives it an ease the English version lost through heavy use. Australian pianist Ambre Hammond and Swiss squash player Ambre Allinckx both answer to it, and it suits anyone who likes Amber’s warmth but wants people to ask how it is spelled.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Amber-colored, yellowish-orange
- Pronunciation: ahm-bah
- Variations: Amber, Ambra, Ámbar
- Namesakes: Ambre Hammond, an Australian classical pianist. Ambre Allinckx, a Swiss professional squash player, ranked #68 globally.
- Popularity: Ambre last appeared in U.S. records in 2023 at #15,337, well below its best showing of #2,722 in 1983.
Amethyst
Amethyst is a purple quartz that runs from pale lilac through violet to something close to black, and it is February’s birthstone. The Greek root is unflattering to the wearer: a- for not and methystos for intoxicated, from the belief that a cup carved of the stone would keep you sober through a long dinner. Along the way it collected associations with clear thinking, calm, and nobility. Amy and Ami are sitting right there for everyday use, handy since the full name has been climbing for a decade now.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Protected from intoxication, dream-stone
- Pronunciation: am-uh-thist
- Popularity: Amethyst ranked #1,242 in the U.S. in 2025 with 181 girls, close to its best of #1,069 in 2022, and use is up about 179% on the previous decade.
Amora
Amora grew out of the Latin amor, love, and wears its meaning openly. It doubles as the trademark name for a silicon carbide gem, moissanite, which is how it earns a place among jewel names, and in Norse it has been read as light eagle. Brazilian television director Amora Mautner carries it. If you want the sentiment without the sweetness, this unique girl’s name gets there in three syllables and has climbed hard over the past decade.
- Origin: Spanish, English
- Meaning: Love
- Pronunciation: uh-moh-rah
- Variations: Amoura, Amore, Amor
- Namesakes: Amora Mautner, a Brazilian TV director, and former actress.
- Popularity: Amora reached its best rank yet in 2025 at #247, with 1,259 girls, after climbing roughly 489% on the previous decade.
Aquamarine
Aquamarine is a variety of beryl, and the name says exactly what it is: aqua for water, marine for the sea. The color runs from greenish blue to blue-green, which is why Roman sailors called it the water of the sea and carried it against rough crossings. It is March’s birthstone. Aqua and Marine both work as everyday shortenings, born from a word that describes its own color exactly.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Seawater
- Pronunciation: AH-kwa-mah-reen
- Popularity: Aquamarine has never been recorded for five American babies in a single year, the point at which the SSA starts publishing a name, so it has no U.S. rank.
Asteria
Asteria comes from the Greek aster, star. The word survives in gemology too: asterism is the star-shaped flash of light that moves across a polished stone, and the gems that show it, star sapphires above all, are called asterias. So the name points at the sky and at the stone in the same breath. It has only been on U.S. birth records since 2014, so it still sounds newly minted.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Star, starry one, as radiant as a star
- Pronunciation: UH-st-eh-ree-ah
- Variations: Asterios
- Popularity: Asteria ranked #4,274 in the U.S. in 2025, just off its best of #3,991 in 2023, and is up about 287% on the previous decade.
Beryl
Beryl is the parent mineral of both emerald and aquamarine, which makes it the quiet workhorse of this list. The Greek beryllos meant color of the sea, and the first eyeglasses, ground in 13th-century Italy, were cut from it. Actresses Beryl Mercer and Beryl Wallace carried the name at its height. It belonged squarely to the 1920s and has been mostly out of use since. Nearly one in five American Beryls on record has been a boy, so it was never strictly a girl’s name.
- Origin: English, Latin, Sanskrit
- Meaning: The blue-green color of seawater
- Pronunciation: BEHR-uhl
- Variations: Beril
- Namesakes: Beryl Mercer, a Spanish American actress honored by Queen Alexandra of Denmark during World War I. Beryl Wallace, an American actress, dancer, and singer.
- Popularity: Beryl peaked at #374 in 1920 and sat at #11,101 in 2025 on eight births. Close to one in five American Beryls on record has been a boy.
Bijou
Bijou is French for a small, finely made piece of jewelry, from the Breton bizou, a finger ring. English borrowed it for anything tiny and exquisite, which is how a flat ends up advertised as bijou. Actress Bijou Phillips and Indian actor Bijou Thaangjam both carry it. It suits a very small person exactly as well as its meaning promises, even as its use has cooled by about 40% over the last decade.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Jewel
- Pronunciation: bee-shuw
- Namesakes: Bijou Lilly Phillips Masterson, an American actress, singer and model. Bijou Thaangjam, an Indian actor, lyricist, chef, art director, and entrepreneur.
- Popularity: Bijou ranked #12,122 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 40% on the previous decade and off its best of #6,008 in 2010.
Cameo
A cameo is a figure cut in relief from a banded stone, usually agate, onyx, or sardonyx, so that a pale profile stands out against a dark ground. The technique goes back to roughly 3,100 B.C. and returned in force in the Victorian era, when jewelers were carving them from coral, shell, and lava stone as well. English DJ Cameo keeps the name in circulation. It reads modern rather than antique, helped along by the film sense of the word, and it has been used for boys and girls alike.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: A gem carved in relief, a carving or sculpture made into a cameo
- Pronunciation: KAM-ee-oh
- Namesakes: DJ Cameo, an English DJ and former host of the grim show Pirate Sessions.
- Popularity: Cameo last charted in the U.S. in 2020 at #13,784. Its best rank was #1,939 in 1980, and its busiest year was 1992.
Carmine
Carmine may not be a gemstone name, but it reminds us beautifully of gemstone-like qualities. It refers to a bright-red pigment from the aluminum complex in carminic acid extracted from the Cochineal insect. The word comes from the Latin “coccinus,” meaning “scarlet-colored,” or from “coccum,” meaning “berry-yielding scarlet dye.” It’s also believed to mean “poetry,” “spell,” or “sacred word,” from the Latin “carmen.”
- Origin: Latin, Aramaic, Italian
- Meaning: Red, crimson
- Pronunciation: KAR-mee-neh
- Variations: Carmen, Carmina, Cármine, Carminé, Carmo, Carmelo, Carmelino, Carmella, Carmela
- Namesakes: Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo, an American actor, known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in CSI: NY. Carmine Vingo, an American world-ranking heavy-weight boxer.
- Popularity: Carmine ranked #1,035 for American boys in 2025 with 214 births, off its best of #396 in 1922, and a small number of girls are given it too.
Carnelian
Carnelian is a brownish-red chalcedony, part of the quartz family, and its Latin root cornum points at the cornel cherry, whose small translucent red fruit it resembles. Bronze Age workers shaped chalcedony into tools and carved carnelian into gems for jewelry, so it has one of the longer working histories of any stone here. Carn or Nelly are both waiting inside it, nicknames for a stone that has been carved into jewelry since the Bronze Age.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: A semi-precious red stone
- Pronunciation: KAHR-nee-lee-ahn
- Variations: Cornelian
- Popularity: Carnelian has no U.S. ranking; the federal data only lists a name once at least five babies receive it in one year.
Celestine
Celestine is a pale blue mineral, and together with strontianite it supplies the strontium that turns fireworks red. The name runs back to the Latin caelestis, heavenly, from caelum, sky. Five popes carried it between the 1200s and the 1700s, along with an order of Benedictine monks who took their name from one of them, and French mezzo-soprano Celestine Galli-Marie sang under it. Few names manage to be sky, stone, and saint at the same time.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Of the sky, heavenly-minded
- Pronunciation: SEHL-uh-steen
- Variations: Célestine, Celestina, Celestino, Celandine, Celeste
- Namesakes: Pope Celestine I, the bishop of Rome from 10 Sep. 422, until his death on 1 Aug. 432. Célestine Galli-Marié, a French mezzo-soprano.
- Popularity: Celestine ranked #3,219 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 98% on the previous decade, though far below its best of #546 in 1933.
Charoite
Charoite is a rare silicate with a pearly sheen and swirling bands that run from translucent purple through violet to light brown. It was found by the Chara River in Russia in the 1940s and called Lilac Stone at first; the Russian chary, meaning magic or charms, gave it the name that stuck. If purple is the whole point for you, nothing else on this list gets there quite so completely.
- Origin: Russian, Latin
- Meaning: Magic
- Pronunciation: SHA-roo-ight
- Popularity: Charoite has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line, and outside the U.S. it is recorded only once, in Hong Kong.
Cinnabar
Cinnabar is a scarlet to brick-red mineral that forms near volcanic vents and hot spring deposits, and it is the historic source of the pigment vermilion. The Greeks called it kinnabari; the Romans called it minium, red cinnamon. It is also mercury ore, which is worth knowing if you are the kind of parent who will be asked. The hard consonant in the middle gives it more edge than most color words on this list.
- Origin: Greek, Latin
- Meaning: A bright-red mineral and chief ore of mercury, brilliant red
- Pronunciation: sin-NAH-bar
- Popularity: Cinnabar has no U.S. ranking at all, having never reached the SSA’s five-births threshold in any year.
Citrine
Citrine takes its name from the French citron, lemon, and covers everything from pale yellow to honey orange; it shares November with golden topaz, an unrelated stone. Eighteenth-century mineralogists worked out that heating amethyst or smoky quartz produces citrine’s warmer tones, which is why a good deal of what is sold as citrine started life purple. English trade unionist Walter Citrine wore it as a surname, and it remains one of the more affordable yellow gems on a jeweler’s tray.
- Origin: English, Old French
- Meaning: Lemon
- Pronunciation: sit-REEN
- Namesakes: Walter Citrine, the 1st Baron Citrine, a leading English international trade unionist from the 20th-century.
- Popularity: Citrine first charted in the U.S. in 2019 and last appeared in 2023 at #13,811, with its best rank of #9,712 coming in 2021.
Copper
Copper is soft, pinkish-orange, and moves heat and electricity better than almost anything else you can pull out of the ground. The Romans mined it on Cyprus, Kyprios in Greek, and called it the metal of Cyprus; that shortened to cyprium, then cuprum, and eventually to the Old English coper. As a name it sits somewhere between a nickname and a color word, and American parents give it to boys about three times as often as to girls.
- Origin: Latin, Greek
- Meaning: Metal of Cyprus
- Pronunciation: KAWP-uhr
- Popularity: Copper reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #2,947, with 42 boys and 12 girls, and is up about 125% on the previous decade.
Coral
Corals are marine animals that build hard skeletons out of calcium carbonate, colony by colony, until they have made a reef. The name reached English through the Greek korallion. Red coral was a prized gemstone in Qing dynasty China, tied to long life, virtue, and high rank, and emperors wore carved coral beads as court jewelry. Poet Coral Bracho and tennis champion Coral Buttsworth both carry it. Coralie and Coraline extend it if two syllables feel too brisk.
- Origin: English, Spanish
- Meaning: Sesile sea animals or reef-builders
- Pronunciation: KAWR-uhl
- Variations: Coralie, Coraline, Kaorlia
- Namesakes: Coral Bracho, a Mexican poet, translator, and literature doctor. Coral Buttsworth, an Australian professional tennis player, and Australian Championships winner.
- Popularity: Coral ranked #1,931 in the U.S. in 2025 with 100 girls. Its best rank was #901 in 1936, though its busiest year for births was 2004.
Crystal
A crystal is any solid whose molecules lock into one of seven repeating lattice patterns, which is a duller definition than the name deserves. The Greek krustallos meant both ice and rock crystal, from kruos, icy cold. Actress Crystal Reed and musician Crystal Taliefero carried it through its peak years. It was one of the defining girls’ names of the early 1980s and has been sliding since, which leaves it in that awkward middle ground where it is neither current nor old enough to count as vintage. The Spanish Cristal and the Greek Krystallia give it a different accent.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Transparent quartz gemstone
- Pronunciation: KRIS-tuhl
- Variations: Chrystal, Christal, Crystallia, Cristalle, Cristal, Kristal, Krystle, Krystal, Krystelle
- Namesakes: Crystal Reed, an American actress, playing Allison Argent in the Teen Wolf series. Crystal Taliefero, an American musician hired by the Billy Joel Band in 1989.
- Popularity: Crystal ranked #1,145 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 67% on the previous decade and a long way from the #9 it reached in 1982.
Diamond
Diamond is pure carbon squeezed into a rigid lattice, and it has been the most valuable thing in a jewelry case for centuries. The name runs back through the Late Latin diamas to the Greek adamas, unconquerable. It is April’s birthstone. Most diamonds are colorless, but the stone also occurs in fiery reds, deep blues, soft pinks, and warm yellows, and those are far rarer than the clear ones. Singer Diamond White and The Voice of China winner Diamond Zhang both carry it, and American parents still give it to boys as well as girls.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Unbreakable
- Pronunciation: DIE-muhnd
- Variations: Diamantina, Diamanto, Diamanda, Dymond, Diamante
- Namesakes: Diamond White, an American singer and actress, who starred in the American X Factor. Diamond Zhang, or Zhang Bichen, known for winning The Voice of China contest in 2014.
- Popularity: Diamond ranked #2,024 for American girls in 2025 and #3,200 for boys. Its best year was 1999, when it reached #150.
Dior
Diorite is a coarse igneous rock that cools slowly underground and turns up along mountain-building belts; Egyptian and Incan sculptors carved it, and English towns paved with it. The name most likely comes from the French dore, golden, which also produced the surname. Christian Dior founded the fashion house that made the word famous, and that is plainly what parents are hearing when they choose it. It is used for girls and boys alike in the U.S.
- Origin: French, English
- Meaning: Golden
- Pronunciation: dee-aw
- Namesakes: Christian Ernest Dior, a French fashion designer who founded one of the world’s top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE.
- Popularity: Dior ranked #1,126 for U.S. girls and #1,590 for boys in 2025. Its best girls’ rank was #499 in 2020, and use is up about 235% on the previous decade.
Ebony
Ebony is not a gemstone, but it keeps the same company: a dense black timber from trees in the Diospyros genus, and one of the most expensive woods in the world. The word travelled from the ancient Egyptian hbny through the Greek ebenos. Cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent and judge Ebony M. Scott both carry it. It had a large run in the early 1980s and has fallen further and faster than anything else on this list, which leaves it quiet enough now to read as a deliberate choice rather than an era.
- Origin: African American, Latin
- Meaning: Deep black wood
- Pronunciation: EHB-uh-nee
- Variations: Eboni, Ebonee
- Namesakes: Ebony Rainford-Brent, a former English cricketer, now a commentator and Director of Women’s Cricket at Surrey. Ebony M. Scott, an American lawyer and Associate Judge.
- Popularity: Ebony ranked #5,452 in the U.S. in 2025. It is the steepest faller on this list, down about 71% when the last ten years of births are set against the ten before them, after peaking at #132 in 1982.
Eirian
Eirian comes from the Welsh arian, silver, and carries the sense of bright and beautiful alongside it. The name is built almost entirely from vowels, carried publicly by artist Eirian Llwyd and gymnast Eirian Smith. Welsh artist Eirian Llwyd and American gymnast Eirian Smith are among the few public bearers. It is one of the newest arrivals in U.S. records, first listed in 2024, so it comes with almost nothing attached to it.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Silver
- Pronunciation: eye-ree-an
- Variations: Eiriane, Eiriann, Eirhian, Irian, Erian
- Namesakes: Eirian Llwyd, a Welsh artist and wife of former Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones. Eirian Smith, an American acrobatic gymnast.
- Popularity: Eirian is one of the newest names here in U.S. records, first listed in 2024 and ranked #9,977 in 2025.
Electra
Electra comes from the Greek elektron, amber, the same root that eventually gave English electricity. In myth she is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and the sister of Orestes, and she holds the title role in two surviving tragedies. A different Electra was one of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Texan heiress Electra Waggoner Biggs and librarian Electra Collins Doren carried it in America. Elektra, Elettra, and Ilektra are the same name with different passports.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Shining, iridescent, amber-haired
- Pronunciation: ee-LEHK-truh
- Variations: Elektra, Ilektra, Ela, Elka, Elke, Elek, Elektrine, Elettra
- Namesakes: Electra Waggoner Biggs, a Texan heiress, socialite, artist, and owner of the Waggoner Ranch in Texas. Electra Collins Doren, an American suffragist and librarian.
- Popularity: Electra ranked #8,000 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 23% on the previous decade, with a best rank of #2,582 back in 1915.
Emerald
Emerald is the green variety of beryl, running from yellow-green to blue-green, and it sits in the Big Four alongside diamond, ruby, and sapphire. The word comes from the Greek smaragdos, green stone, and emerald is the birthstone for May (2). Egyptians were mining it by 330 B.C. and buried it with their monarchs for protection; Cleopatra’s fondness for the stone is the detail everyone remembers. Actress and filmmaker Emerald Fennell carries the name today, and it has climbed sharply on U.S. records over the past decade.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Green gemstone
- Pronunciation: EHM-uh-ruld
- Variations: Esmeralda, Esméralda, Esmé, Esme, Zümra
- Namesakes: Emerald Lilly Fennell, an English actress, writer and filmmaker.
- Popularity: Emerald ranked #741 in the U.S. in 2025 with 367 girls, near its best of #708 in 2024, and 32 boys were given it the same year. Use is up about 109% on the previous decade.
Emery
Emery is a dark, granular rock hard enough that crushed emery is what makes an emery board an emery board; it also goes into abrasive cloth, asphalt, and tarmac mixtures. Crushed and graded, it is sold as black stone. The name was a boys’ name first, strongest around 1901, and has since become far more common for girls without ever leaving the boys’ list. Linda Emery Lee Cadwell, widow of Bruce Lee, carried it as a middle name. It now sits inside the U.S. top 100 for girls and the top 1,000 for boys, a split very few names manage.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Industrious, powerful
- Pronunciation: EHM-uh-ree
- Variations: Amery, Amory, Emerie, Emory
- Namesakes: Linda Emery Lee Cadwell, a retired American teacher and writer, widow of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, and mother to the late actor, Brandon Lee.
- Popularity: Emery ranked #74 for American girls in 2025 with 3,208 births, and #815 for boys. It is one of four names on this list inside the U.S. top 100.
Esmeralda
Esmeralda is Spanish and Portuguese for emerald, and it has the length and roll that Spanish names do so well. Victor Hugo put it in front of English readers in 1831 with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and it has stayed in use ever since. Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium and Mexican actress Esmeralda Pimentel both answer to it. Esme is the ready shortening, and Emerald is the same stone in plainer clothes.
- Origin: Spanish, Portuguese, English
- Meaning: Emerald
- Pronunciation: ehz-muh-RAHL-duh, izh-mi-RAL-duh
- Variations: Emerald, Esmaralda, Esméralda
- Namesakes: Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, Lady Moncada, a member of the Belgian royal family. Esmeralda Pimentel, a Mexican actress and model.
- Popularity: Esmeralda ranked #373 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 19% on the previous decade, after peaking at #133 in 1998.
Farida
Farida is the feminine form of the masculine Farid, derived from the Arabic “farada”( فرد ), meaning “to be unique.” This stunning title is common among Muslim and Hindu communities. It’s spelled Feride in Turkish and Farideh in Persian, in the Iranian dialect.
- Origin: Arabic, Indian
- Meaning: Precious pearl, unique
- Pronunciation: fa-REED
- Variations: Feride, Farideh, Fárida, Faridà, Faridah, Fharida, Farieda
- Namesakes: Farida of Egypt, the Queen of Egypt as King Farouk’s first wife (1938 – 1978). Farida Azizi, an Afghan advocate for women’s rights.
- Popularity: Farida ranked #3,855 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 46% on the previous decade, with a best rank of #3,104 in 2015.
Firoza
Firoza is the Bengali word for turquoise, and it traces back to the classical Persian firoza. There is also a town called Firoza in Pakistan’s Rahim Yar Khan district. Singer Firoza Begum, who won the Independence Day Award in 1979, and the Bollywood actress of the same name both carried it. Feroza and Fairoza are the alternate spellings you are most likely to meet.
- Origin: Bengali
- Meaning: Turquoise
- Pronunciation: fih-ROH-zah
- Variations: Firozah, Feiroza, Fieroza, Fairoza, Farooza, Feroza
- Namesakes: Firoza Begum, a Bangladeshi Nazrul Geeti singer, awarded the Independence Day Award in 1979. Firoza Begum, a Jewish Indian actress, starring in several Bollywood and Mollywood films
- Popularity: Firoza has never been published in U.S. birth records, though it is widely used in India and Bangladesh.
Flint
Flint is a cryptocrystalline quartz that forms as nodules inside limestone and chalk, and it was the most important material of the Stone Age: knapped into blades, struck for fire. The name is short, hard, needs no nickname, and belongs to screenwriter and game designer Flint Dille, its best-known bearer. It last had a real run around 1959 and has been climbing steadily again.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: A type of stone
- Pronunciation: FLINT
- Namesakes: Flint Dille, and American screenwriter and game designer.
- Popularity: Flint ranked #2,293 in the U.S. in 2025 and is up about 104% on the previous decade. Its best rank was #762 in 1959, and its busiest year was 2017.
Gabbro
Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained igneous rock that forms when iron-rich and magnesium-rich magma cools slowly beneath the surface. Most of the ocean floor is built from it, especially along the mid-ocean ridges. It is one of the more surprising picks here, better suited to a child raised on rock hammers and tide charts than to a nursery mood board.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: A type of igneous rock
- Pronunciation: gah-broh
- Popularity: Gabbro has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line, which is either a warning or the entire appeal.
Galena
Galena is lead sulfide, the main ore of lead and an important source of silver. The likely root is the Greek galene, calm, which is a gentle meaning for such a heavy mineral. Egyptians ground it into kohl and lined their eyes with it, partly against the desert glare and partly to keep the flies off. Bulgarian singer Galina Gencheva performs as Galena, and Galina and Galya are the Slavic forms sitting closest to it.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Calm
- Pronunciation: guh-LEE-nah
- Variations: Galina, Galya
- Namesakes: Galina Vicheva Gencheva, known as Galena, a Bulgarian pop-folk singer.
- Popularity: Galena ranked #11,260 in the U.S. in 2025 on eight births, having first appeared in the data in 1902.
Garnet
Garnet is January’s birthstone and is usually pictured deep red, though the family runs through nearly every color, from pyrope red to tsavorite green. The Middle English gernet meant dark red, and the Latin granatum meant seed, after the resemblance to pomegranate seeds. Garnets have long been linked with energy, love, and keeping travelers safe. Canadian politician Garnett Genuis and hockey player Garnet Hathaway carry the boys’ spelling, and the name has stayed in use for both.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Dark red, seed
- Pronunciation: GAHR-nhut
- Variations: Garnette
- Namesakes: Garnett Genuis, a Canadian politician. Garnet Hathaway, an American professional hockey player.
- Popularity: Garnet ranked #11,263 for U.S. girls and #11,119 for boys in 2025, after peaking at #407 in 1918. About one in five American Garnets on record has been a boy.
Gemma
Gemma is Latin for gem, and it started in Italian communities as an affectionate nickname before English adopted it as a name in its own right. Dante Alighieri’s wife was a Gemma. Italian mystic Gemma Galgani is a saint of the Catholic Church, and media personality Gemma Collins keeps it in the present tense. Two syllables, no ambiguity about how to say it, and it is currently at the highest U.S. rank it has ever held.
- Origin: Latin, Italian
- Meaning: Jewel, gem
- Pronunciation: JEHM-ma, ZHEHM-muh
- Variations: Jemma, Gema, Gemmah, Ghemma
- Namesakes: Gemma Galgani, an Italian mystic and Catholic Church saint. Gemma Clare Collins, an English media personality and businesswoman.
- Popularity: Gemma reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #170, with 1,805 girls, and is up about 120% on the previous decade.
Giada
Giada is Italian for jade, and it sounds the way the stone looks: cool, smooth, unhurried. Jade was prized across Asia and Latin America long before Europe paid it much attention, and Chinese emperors placed it roughly where the West placed gold. Chef Giada De Laurentiis is the reason most Americans can pronounce it, and director Giada Colagrande carries it too. It peaked in the U.S. around 2010 and has eased back since, which puts it in reach again.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Jade
- Pronunciation: jah-dah
- Variations: Jada, Jade, Jaida, Jayda, Jayde
- Namesakes: Giada Colagrande, an Italian film director and actress, married to American actor, Willem Dafoe. Giada De Laurentiis, an Italian American television personality, chef, entrepreneur, and writer.
- Popularity: Giada ranked #1,438 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 42% on the previous decade, after peaking at #754 in 2010.
Goldie
Goldie has several possible starts: the Yiddish Golde or Golda, a shortening of the English Marigold, or simply a nickname for someone fair-haired. It ran strongly through the first decade of the 1900s, disappeared for half a century, and has come back hard. Goldie Hawn kept it visible through the long quiet stretch. It suits a child of any hair color, which is more than most nickname names can claim.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Made of gold, gold
- Pronunciation: GOL-dee
- Variations: Golda, Goldeana, Goldee, Golden, Goldena, Goldene, Goldey, Goldi, Goldia, Goldina, Goldine, Goldy, Goldye
- Namesakes: Goldie Jeanne Hawn, an American actress, known for Bird on a Wire (1990) and The First Wives Club (1996).
- Popularity: Goldie ranked #621 in the U.S. in 2025 and is up about 565% on the previous decade, though still short of the #150 it held in 1913.
Goldstone
Goldstone, or aventurine glass, is a type of glass created in a low-oxygen environment that results in a stunning, reddish, smooth, polished semi-precious stone used in beads, figurines, or other artifacts. The name for this artificial stone originates from the Anglo-Saxon, Goldstan, or Goldston, referring to those who lived near a yellow/golden stone. Its alternate name comes from the Italian “avventura,” meaning “adventure” or “chance.”
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Dweller at the gold rock
- Pronunciation: GHOLD-stohn
- Variations: Gouldstone, Goldstein, Goldzstone, Goldston, Gholdston
- Namesakes: James Goldstone, an American film and television director. Richard Goldstone, a South African former judge, and international war crimes prosecutor.
- Popularity: Goldstone has never been published as a U.S. given name; it is far better known as a surname.
Granite
Granite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock and the most common thing in the Earth’s continental crust. The Latin granum behind it refers to the stone’s grainy surface. You are far more likely to meet the word on a map than on a birth certificate, from Granite Harbour in Antarctica to Granite City, Illinois, and Granite Falls in Washington. As a name it is blunt and immovable, which is either the point or the problem.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Grain
- Pronunciation: GRA-nit
- Variations: Granitë, Granit, Granites
- Popularity: Granite last appeared in U.S. records in 2022 at #10,160, with a best rank of #7,304 in 2016.
Heliodor
Heliodor is a golden-yellow beryl, first identified in western Namibia in 1910, and collectors want it for the color as much as the rarity. The Greek helios and doron together give gift of the sun. Some sources treat Heliodor as the Polish or Catalan form of Heliodorus, said kheh-LYAW-dawr. Helio and Dori fall out of it without effort, shortenings for a stone first identified in Namibia only a century ago.
- Origin: Greek, Polish
- Meaning: Gift of the sun
- Pronunciation: HEE-lee-oh-dore
- Variations: Heliodore, Héliodor, Eliodor, Heliodorous, Heliodoros, Heliodoro
- Popularity: Heliodor has never reached the SSA’s publication threshold, so it carries no U.S. ranking.
Helmi
Helmi has several uses and origins. In Finnish and Estonian, it’s considered a diminutive of Vilhelmiina or Vilhelmina – derived from William, meaning “will-helmet.” Helmi is also used in Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, and Bangla as a surname or first name for boys, meaning “gentle, calm, or patient.”
- Origin: Finnish, Swedish
- Meaning: Pearl, amber, bead
- Pronunciation: HEHL-mee
- Variations: Hélmi, Helmis, Chelmi, Helmie, Helmii, Hellmi, Hilmi
- Namesakes: Helmi Johannes, an Indonesian television newscaster. Helmi Purr, an Estonian prima ballerina, dance master, and coach.
- Popularity: Helmi’s U.S. record is historical: it last charted in 1928 at #4,405 and peaked at #1,380 in 1915. It stays in steady use in Finland and is also a common surname in Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
Hira
Hira, also spelled Heera, comes from the Sanskrit hira, diamond. It also names the Cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nour, the Mountain of the Light, where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have received the first revelation of the Quran. Nepali folk singer Hira Devi Waiba and actress Heera Rajagopal have both carried it. Two syllables, one clean meaning, and it travels between languages without losing its shape.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Diamond, jewel
- Pronunciation: HHIY-Raa
- Variations: Heera
- Namesakes: Hira Devi Waiba, an Indian folk singer, hailed as the pioneer of Nepali folk songs. Heera Rajagopal, an Indian actress, featured in several Tamil and Hindi films.
- Popularity: Hira ranked #5,303 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 55% on the previous decade, with its busiest year in 2024.
Inbar
Inbar is Hebrew for amber, the fossilized tree resin, and it comes by way of the Arabic anbar. Israeli actress Inbar Lavi and singer-songwriter Inbar Bakal are its best-known bearers, and the name last turned up in U.S. records back in 2002. If you have Israeli family or simply want something outside the usual run, it does the job.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Amber
- Pronunciation: IN-bar
- Variations: Einbar, Yinbar, Ginbar, Inbare, Anbar
- Namesakes: Inbar Lavi, an Israeli actress known for playing Raviva on the 2012 MTV series Underemployed. Inbar Bakal, an Israeli singer-songwriter.
- Popularity: Inbar last appeared in U.S. records in 2002 at #16,424, having first charted in 1988.
Indigo
Indigo is not a stone, but it is the color a great many stones reach for. You will find its shades in amethyst, charoite, iolite, and tanzanite, and in indigo sapphire, indigo agate, lapis lazuli, and blue spinel. The word comes through the Greek indikon, from India, where the dye trade began. Singer Indigo De Souza and musician Indigo Sparke carry it now. Blue gemstones have long been credited with healing properties, and the name has been rising quickly for girls and boys both.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Blue-purple shade, from India
- Pronunciation: IN-dee-goh
- Variations: Indiego
- Namesakes: Indigo De Souza, an American Brazilian singer-songwriter. Indigo Sparke, an Australian Indie rock musician.
- Popularity: Indigo reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025, #854 for girls and #1,531 for boys, and is up about 246% on the previous decade.
Iris
Iris is Greek for rainbow, and it belongs on this list through iris quartz, also called rainbow quartz or anandalite, whose internal fractures throw color across an otherwise clear stone. The name carries a goddess, a flower, and part of the eye as well, which is unusual density for four letters. Miss Universe winner Iris Mittenaere and style icon Iris Apfel are its modern faces. It is the highest-ranked name on this page, and 2025 was its best year in U.S. records since 1880.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Rainbow
- Pronunciation: EYE-ris, EE-ris, EE-rees
- Variations: Iiris, Irida
- Namesakes: Iris Mittenaere, a French model, TV host, and beauty queen, crowned Miss Universe in 2016. Iris Apfel, an American actress, businesswoman, and fashion icon.
- Popularity: Iris ranked #61 in the U.S. in 2025 with 3,729 girls, its best rank since records began in 1880, and the highest-ranked name on this list.
Ivory
Ivory is dentine, the hard creamy material of tusks and teeth, and the word reached English through the Egyptian abu, elephant, the Anglo-Norman ivurie, and the Latin eboreus. Elephants supplied most of it, though mammoth, walrus, hippopotamus, sperm whale, orca, and warthog ivory all had markets of their own. Nearly all trade in natural ivory is now illegal, and synthetic substitutes have replaced it. Wrestler Lisa Mary Moretti competed as Ivory, and director James Ivory carries it as a surname. The name has been climbing since 2013 and is close to a genuine unisex split.
- Origin: English, German
- Meaning: Hard creamy white substance from animal tusks
- Pronunciation: IE-vuh-ree
- Variations: Aivory, Ivorry, Ivorey, Ivoray
- Namesakes: Ivory, or Lisa Mary Moretti, a retired American wrestler and coach. James Ivory, an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
- Popularity: Ivory reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #378 and is up about 197% on the previous decade. Boys account for more than a third of American Ivorys on record.
Jacinth
Jacinth is a yellow-red to red-brown variety of zircon, and it is one of the stones set into the high priest’s breastplate in the Old Testament, where the Hebrew leshem is usually translated as jacinth. Hyacinth is the same word wearing a flower. Singaporean actress Jacintha Abisheganaden and Canadian skater Jacinthe Lariviere use the longer forms. It has barely registered in American records, which is part of the appeal.
- Origin: Greek, Hebrew
- Meaning: Blue larkspur, precious stone
- Pronunciation: JAY-sinth
- Variations: Jacintha, Jaycinthe, Hyacinth, Jacinthe, Jascinth, Jaycinth
- Namesakes: Jacintha Abisheganaden, a Singaporean actress and singer. Jacinthe Larivière, a Canadian pair skater.
- Popularity: Jacinth last appeared in U.S. records in 2019 at #12,920, having first charted in 1999.
Jade
Jade covers two different stones. Nephrite is the more common, with a splintery, oily luster; jadeite is rarer and includes imperial jade, which occurs in white, emerald and apple green, red, brown, and blue. The name arrived through the Spanish piedra de ijada, stone of the bowels, from a belief that it eased kidney and abdominal complaints, and parents once laid a jade stone on a baby’s stomach to settle colic. Video game producer Jade Raymond and race driver Jade Buford both carry it. It has held a top-100 U.S. place for years without ever tipping into overuse.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Flank (side) of body, loin stone
- Pronunciation: JAYD, ZHAD
- Variations: Giada, Jada, Jaida, Jayda, Jayde, Jaden
- Namesakes: Jade Raymond, a Canadian video game producer, known for helping create the Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs franchises. Jade Buford, an American professional race driver.
- Popularity: Jade ranked #95 in the U.S. in 2025 with 2,658 girls, close to its best of #80 in 2023, and 57 boys were given it the same year.
Jasper
Jasper is an opaque aggregate of quartz, chalcedony, and other minerals, usually an earthy red but also yellow, brown, green, and very rarely blue. The stone’s name came through the Old French jaspre, spotted or speckled stone, while the given name arrived separately from the Hebrew gizbar, treasurer. Bloodstone, a green jasper flecked with red, is the traditional birthstone for March. Taiwanese actor Jasper Liu and Burgundy writer Jasper Morris both answer to it, and the name has risen steadily to sit just inside the U.S. top 150 for boys.
- Origin: Persian, Hebrew, Dutch
- Meaning: Bringer of treasure, treasurer
- Pronunciation: JAS-phur, YAHS-phur (Dutch)
- Variations: Jesper, Caspar, Kaspar, Kasper, Gasparo, Jespa
- Namesakes: Jasper Liu, a Taiwanese actor, model, and musician. Jasper Morris, a British Master of Wine and Burgundy expert.
- Popularity: Jasper ranked #129 for American boys in 2025 with 2,804 births, near its best of #122 in 2023, and use is up about 151% on the previous decade.
Jet
Jet is fossilized wood, a lignite formed from trees in the Araucariaceae family and polished to a deep black. The word came through the French jaiet, modern jais, from Gagae, the ancient town the material shipped from, and the adjective jet-black grew straight out of it. In Dutch, Jet is a short form of Henriette or Mariette and is said YEHT. Musician Terence Harris and chef Jet Tila carry the English version. No obvious nickname falls out of it, which puts it in the same short company as its wearers Terence Harris and Jet Tila.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Black stone, home-ruler, drop of the sea
- Pronunciation: JEHT, YEHT
- Variations: Jett, Jeet, Jete, Jetta
- Namesakes: Terence “Jet” Harris, and English rock and roll musician, known for working with Cliff Richard. Jet Tila, an American celebrity chef, author, and restaurant developer.
- Popularity: Jet ranked #1,246 in the U.S. in 2025, just off its best of #1,139 in 2019.
Jewel
Jewel is simply the English word for a cut stone, and it came from the Old French jouel, a toy or a delight, probably related to jeu, game. It may have begun as an affectionate nickname in the 19th century, or been lifted from the surname Jewel or Jewell. Bishop John Jewel held Salisbury from 1559, and actress Jewel Staite played Kaylee in Firefly. It last carried real numbers around 1916, which places it right at the edge of the vintage revival window.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Precious stone
- Pronunciation: JOOL, JOO-uhl
- Variations: Juvela, Jewell, Jewele, Jhewel
- Namesakes: John Jewel, the Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571. Jewel Staite, a Canadian actress known for portraying Kaylee Frye in the series Firefly.
- Popularity: Jewel ranked #1,514 in the U.S. in 2025, well below the #224 it reached in 1916. About one in nine American Jewels on record has been a boy.
Jumana
Jumana is Arabic for a pearl, and specifically for a rare one; it is also read as silver pearl. Syrian actress and producer Jumana Murad and Jordanian journalist Jumana Ghunaimat both bear it. Three open syllables make it easy on an English tongue, and 2025 was its best year yet in American records.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Rarest pearl
- Pronunciation: joo-MA-nah
- Variations: Jumanai, Jumanna, Jumanay
- Namesakes: Jumana Murad, a Syrian actress and producer. Jumana Ghunaimat, a Jordanian journalist and media figure.
- Popularity: Jumana reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #4,812, up about 32% on the previous decade.
Kohaku
Kohaku is Japanese for amber, the transparent yellowish-orange resin of ancient pine trees that has been carved and set for thousands of years. Japanese wrestler Hana Iwaki competes under the ring name. The pattern of consonants keeps it crisp rather than delicate. It reached U.S. birth records for the first time in 2025.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Amber
- Pronunciation: KO-HA-KOO
- Variations: Chohaku, Kohakou
- Namesakes: Hana Iwaki, known by her ring name Kohaku, a Japanese professional wrestler.
- Popularity: Kohaku entered U.S. birth records for the first time in 2025, at #11,420 on six births.
Lapis
Lapis is short for lapis lazuli, a metamorphic rock whose deep blue has been worth mining since at least 7,570 B.C., the date of artifacts found at Bhirrana. Renaissance painters ground it into ultramarine, for a long time the most costly pigment a studio could buy. Lapis lazuli is also December’s birthstone. Two syllables and a soft opening carry none of the weight the full Latin phrase brings with it.
- Origin: Latin, Persian
- Meaning: Stone of the sky, stone from heaven
- Pronunciation: LAH-pis
- Variations: Lápis
- Popularity: Lapis has never been published in U.S. birth records, so no American ranking exists for it.
Larimar
Larimar is the trade name for a turquoise-blue pectolite found in one place on earth, the Filipinas Larimar Mine in the Dominican Republic. The man credited with the find is said to have built the name from his daughter Larissa and the Spanish mar, sea, because the stone looked as though it had washed in from the water. Larrimar and Lariemar are the alternate spellings. Few gem names come with a story that personal, and it reached its highest U.S. rank in 2025.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Stone of the sea, blue stone
- Pronunciation: LA-ree-mar
- Variations: Larrimar, Lariemar
- Popularity: Larimar reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #5,831 and is up about 103% on the previous decade.
Lazuli
Lazuli names both the bright blue lazulite mineral and the deep blue lapis lazuli, and the medieval Latin lazulum behind it meant sky or heaven; it is a softer, more musical route into the same stone as Lapis, and December babies get it as a birthstone either way. It has only been on U.S. records since 2016, arriving well after most of the names on this list.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Shining stone
- Pronunciation: LAH-zoo-lee
- Variations: Lázuli, Lazulie
- Popularity: Lazuli ranked #10,547 in the U.S. in 2025, off its best of #7,494 in 2021, and first appeared in the data in 2016.
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide that forms in banded greens, and the Greek malachitis lithos, mallow stone, was named for its resemblance to mallow leaves. The word also describes that particular yellowish green in nature, as in the malachite sunbird that ranges from Ethiopia to South Africa. Three syllables with a hard stop at the end give it more spine than most green names, and it has only appeared in U.S. records since 2017.
- Origin: Latin, Greek
- Meaning: Mallow-green stone
- Pronunciation: MA-luh-kiet
- Variations: Mallachite, Malakite
- Popularity: Malachite ranked #7,051 in the U.S. in 2025, off its best of #4,296 in 2023, and first charted in 2017.
Margot
Margot is the French form of Margaret, through the Latin Margarita and the Greek margarites, pearl. Actress Margot Robbie has done more for it in a decade than the previous fifty years managed, and actress Margo Harshman carries the shorter spelling. Pearls have long stood for wisdom, purity, and change, which is a reasonable thing to hand a child along with a name. Marguerite, Margaux, and Marjorie all sit in the same family, and Margot itself is at its highest U.S. rank on record.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: MAHR-goh
- Variations: Marguerite, Marge, Margaretta, Margaux, Margery, Margret, Marjorie, Marjory
- Namesakes: Margot Elise Robbie, an Australian actress and producer, known for her roles in Suicide Squad and Barbie. Margo Cathleen Harshman, an American actress, starring in The Big Ban Theory.
- Popularity: Margot reached its best U.S. rank yet in 2025 at #102, with 2,575 girls, after climbing about 604% on the previous decade.
Marjani
Little information is available regarding this stunning name. In Sanskrit and Hindi, it refers to the female attendant of the goddess durga, representing “purification” and “cleansing.” Some sources suggest it means “one who is beautiful like precious coral” in Arabic. With such meaningful associations, it’s difficult for this one not to make the shortlist!
- Origin: Indian, Arabic
- Meaning: Coral
- Pronunciation: maar-jah-nEE
- Variations: Marijani, Marjanis, Mardjani
- Popularity: Marjani last appeared in U.S. records in 2024 at #16,825, well below its best of #6,842 in 1991.
Mica
Mica is a group of silicate minerals that split into thin, flexible sheets, which is why they end up in paint, drywall, roofing, electronics, and car parts. The Latin mica meant crumb and micare meant to glitter, and both readings suit it. As a given name it works as a short form of the Hebrew Mikha’el, who is like God, and some sources give it as brook. Actress Mica Burton and composer Mica Levi both use it, and American parents give it to girls and boys at similar rates.
- Origin: Hebrew, Latin
- Meaning: To glitter
- Pronunciation: MHIE-kah
- Variations: Micah, Micael, Mikael, Mikkel, Maikel, Michel, Micha, Michaela, Michael
- Namesakes: Mica Burton, an American actress, cosplayer, and host. Mica Levi, an English singer, song-writer, and composer.
- Popularity: Mica ranked #6,046 for U.S. girls and #4,488 for boys in 2025, off a best girls’ rank of #1,347 in 1970.
Mina
Mina is a delightful short name with several origins. In Sanskrit, it means “fish,” referring to the daughter of the Hindu goddess, ushas. In English/Dutch, Mina is the diminutive for Wilhelmina and other names ending in “-mina.” For gemstone lovers, Mina means “azure” or “enamel.”
- Origin: Persian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese
- Meaning: Clear like crystals, sky blue
- Pronunciation: MEE-nah
- Variations: Mína, Miña, Miná, Minah, Maina, Minas
- Namesakes: Mina Myoi, a Japanese singer and dancer. Mina Anna Quaini, an Italian singer and actress.
- Popularity: Mina ranked #597 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 56% on the previous decade, with its busiest year in 2023 and a best rank of #455 in 1913.
Moonstone
Moonstone is a translucent feldspar with a soft bluish sheen that makes it look lit from somewhere inside, and it has held people’s attention for millennia. Romans decided it was moonlight that had set solid, and built worship of lunar deities around it. The name is a compound and reads as one, which makes it a natural middle name rather than a first choice.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Stone name
- Pronunciation: MOON-stohn
- Popularity: Moonstone has never been given to five American babies in a single year, so it has no U.S. ranking.
Morganite
Morganite is an orange or pink variety of beryl, also known as pink beryl, rose beryl, or pink emerald. One of the largest morganite gems, “The Rose of Maine,” weighing 23 kg, was discovered in Buckfield, Maine, U.S.A., in 1989. The name Morganite originated from American financier and banker J.P. Morgan. In Welsh, Morgan means “sea-born” or “sea-circle.”
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Gemstone name, sea-born
- Pronunciation: MOHR-gah-night
- Popularity: Morganite carries no U.S. ranking, having never reached the SSA’s publication threshold.
Neelam
Neelam is a Sanskrit and Marathi form of Nilam, a unisex name meaning dark blue sapphire. Sapphire is both the modern and the traditional birthstone for September, and it is one of the few stones that shows natural asterism, the six-rayed star that slides across a polished dome, so it has long been treated as protective. Miss Canada Neelam Verma and model Neelam Gill both carry the name.
- Origin: Hindi
- Meaning: Blue sapphire
- Pronunciation: NIY-LAEM
- Variations: Neelum, Neela, Neelima, Nila, Nilima
- Namesakes: Neelam Verma, a Canadian TV host and advocate, crowned Miss Canada in 2002. Neelam Gill, a British fashion model.
- Popularity: Neelam last appeared in U.S. records in 2023 at #14,665, off its best of #3,875 in 1990. It remains a common name for Indian girls.
Ngọc
Ngọc is a Sino-Vietnamese name referring to the beautiful jade gemstone. Throughout history, this ornamental jewel has been associated with nobility, wealth, and good fortune and is considered a protector of generations. Chinese dynasties were the most fascinated with the gemstone, and according to legend, Chinese Emperor Qianlong dedicated over 800 songs to his jadeite treasure collection. As the Chinese saying goes: “You can put a price on gold, but jade is priceless.”
- Origin: Vietnamese
- Meaning: Jade
- Pronunciation: NGOWKP
- Variations: Ngoc
- Namesakes: Ngọc Bích Ngân, a Vietnamese Canadian singer-songwriter, writer, and artist. Ngọc Sơn, a Vietnamse singer.
- Popularity: Ngọc has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line.
Obsidian
Obsidian is volcanic glass, formed when lava cools too fast for crystals to grow. It is usually a glossy black, though green and brown pieces turn up as well. The Latin obsidianus means of Obsidius, after the Roman credited with bringing it to notice. Sid falls out of it without effort, a stealth nickname for a name whose American use has more than doubled over the past decade.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Volcanic glass
- Pronunciation: ahb-SID-ee-yuhn
- Variations: Obsidiana, Obsidianna
- Popularity: Obsidian ranked #5,778 in the U.S. in 2025, off its best of #5,010 in 2023, and use is up about 174% on the previous decade.
Ocean
Ocean earns its place through ocean jasper, a rare banded form of jasper and a silicon dioxide mineral in the quartz family. The word itself comes from the Greek Okeanos, eldest of the Titans, imagined as the great river running around the whole of the earth. Singer Frank Ocean has done most of the recent work of making it usable. As a nature-inspired name it has risen steeply over the past decade for girls and boys alike.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Large body of water
- Pronunciation: OH-shun
- Variations: Oceane, Océan, Ocèan
- Namesakes: Frank Ocean, an American singer, songwriter, and rapper.
- Popularity: Ocean ranked #720 for U.S. boys and #787 for girls in 2025, just off its best of #592 in 2024, and is up about 300% on the previous decade.
Onyx
Onyx is a parallel-banded variety of chalcedony, most familiar in black and white, though the family covers almost every color and the red-banded form is called sardonyx. The Greek root means claw or nail. It is the fastest-climbing name on this list, up roughly 926% when the last decade of U.S. births is set against the one before it, and it is given to boys and girls both. For a four-letter name with an x on the end, that is a lot of ground covered in a short time.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Claw, nail
- Pronunciation: AHN-iks
- Popularity: Onyx ranked #365 in the U.S. in 2025 and is the fastest riser on this list, up about 926% when the last ten years of births are measured against the ten before them.
Opal
Opal is a form of hydrated silica classed as a mineraloid, and no two pieces play the light the same way. The name traces to the Sanskrit upala, precious stone, which became opalus in ancient Rome; Australia’s mines began producing commercially in the 1890s and have supplied most of the world’s opal since (3). It is October’s birthstone, shared with tourmaline. Diarist Opal Whiteley carried the name at its height. Opal was one of the great names of 1913, all but vanished by the mid-1990s, and has climbed back to roughly forty times that low point.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Jewel, precious stone
- Pronunciation: OH-phul
- Variations: Opaline
- Namesakes: Opal Irene Whiteley, an American diarist and nature writer, who gained international fame in the early 1900s.
- Popularity: Opal ranked #423 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 385% on the previous decade. It peaked at #86 in 1913, bottomed out in 1995, and is now running at roughly 42 times that low.
Ophir
Ophir is the Hebrew masculine form of Ophira, which is typically heard among Israeli girls. The precise etymology of Ophir is unclear (4) but may have originated when referencing the rich, fruitful Ophir region in the New Testament. A perfect way to depict how valuable your precious new boy is to you!
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Gold, fruitful region
- Pronunciation: OH-fur
- Variations: Ofir, Ofira, Ophira
- Namesakes: Ophir Pines-Paz, an Israeli politician.
- Popularity: Ophir last appeared in U.S. records in 2007 at #11,970, having first charted in 1978.
Oro
Oro started as a Pacific Islander name inspired by the war god of Tahiti. According to legend, he would create a rainbow to descend between the heavens and the earth as a warrior, where he would court the first daughter of man, Vairaumati.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Gold, god of war
- Pronunciation: OH-roh
- Variations: Orou, Ouro
- Namesakes: Jesús Javier Hernández Silva, a Mexican wrestler known as Oro. Juan Bustillo Oro, a Mexican film director and producer.
- Popularity: Oro has charted in the U.S. exactly once, in 2024, at #13,718 on five births.
Pearl
Pearl forms inside a living mollusk, layer by layer, rather than being cut or polished from stone. The word arrived through the French perle, and the mollusk family’s scientific name, Margaritiferidae, runs back to margarita, the Old Persian for pearl, which is also where Margaret comes from. Pearls stand for purity and are June’s birthstone; Greeks held that they were Aphrodite’s tears of joy, hardened. Novelist Pearl S. Buck and actress Pearl Bailey both carried it at its height. It was a top-60 American name in 1913 and has been quietly recovering ever since.
- Origin: Latin, Persian
- Meaning: Precious stone name
- Pronunciation: PUURL
- Variations: Pearll, Pearlie, Perlie, Pearle, Phearl, Pearel, Pearlh
- Namesakes: Pearl S. Buck, an American writer and novelist. Pearl Bailey, an American actress and the first African American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1976.
- Popularity: Pearl ranked #777 in the U.S. in 2025, up about 30% on the previous decade, after reaching #55 in 1913.
Peridot
Peridot is gem-quality olivine, and it is one of very few stones that comes in a single color, a yellowish-green that holds steady whatever the light. Its origin is unsettled: possibly the Anglo-Norman pedoretes through the Latin paederos, possibly the Arabic faridat, gem. It is August’s birthstone, and the name has appeared in American birth records exactly once, in 2023, which tells you how much room is left in it.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Gem
- Pronunciation: PEH-ree-DOHT
- Popularity: Peridot has appeared in U.S. birth records once, in 2023, at #17,025.
Pyrite
Pyrite is an iron sulfide, brassy and metallic enough to have fooled a great many prospectors, which is how it earned the name fool’s gold. The Greek pyrites lithos meant the stone that strikes fire, because pyrite throws sparks when it meets steel. That is a plain and useful thing for a name to mean, straightforward the way the mineral itself is.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Firestone
- Pronunciation: PYE-ryte
- Popularity: Pyrite has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line.
Quartz
Quartz is silicon dioxide and the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, which makes it the most ordinary extraordinary thing on this list. The word came through a Polish dialect term kwardy, related to the Czech tvrdy, hard, while the Greeks called it krustallos, icy cold. One hard syllable ending in a z is an unusual shape for a given name, which is probably why it works better in the middle slot than the first.
- Origin: Greek, German
- Meaning: Icy cold, cross-vein ore
- Pronunciation: KWORTZ
- Popularity: Quartz has no U.S. ranking; no year has yet seen five American babies given the name.
Ratna
Ratna is Sanskrit for jewel or treasure and is used widely across Hindu communities. Queen Ratna was queen mother of Nepal from 1955 to 1972, and Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno is a well-known Indonesian businesswoman and television host. It carries easily across languages, the same word queen mother Ratna and businesswoman Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno both wore.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Jewel
- Pronunciation: RAHT-nah
- Variations: Rathna, Rathan, Rattna, Ratnna
- Namesakes: Ratna, Queen mother of Nepal from 1955 to 1972. Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, a Japanese Indonesian businesswoman, socialite, and television host.
- Popularity: Ratna has never been published in U.S. birth records, though it is widely used across India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Rosegold
Rosegold is an alloy with varying ratios of gold, copper, and silver, resulting in a typical pinkish-gold hue. Also known as Pinkgold or Redgold, it was first used in the 19th-century by Carl Fabergé, the renowned Russian jeweler for the czars. Rose comes from the German name Hrodohaidis, meaning “famous type.” This delightfully unique name offers lovely nicknames, such as Goldie and Rosie.
- Origin: German, English
- Meaning: Pinkish-gold
- Pronunciation: RHOHZ-ghold
- Variations: Rosegale, Rasegole, Rosinha, Rozaliya, Rosalía, Rosie, Goldie
- Popularity: Rosegold has no U.S. birth record, so it carries no American ranking.
Ruby
Ruby is red corundum, the same mineral family as sapphire, ranging from pinkish-red through orange-red to a deep blood red, and it is prized as much for its hardness as its color. The Latin ruber gave it the name, and it is July’s birthstone; ancient wearers carried it for strength and courage in battle. It is one of the cardinal gems alongside amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond, and Sanskrit calls it ratnaraj, king of gems. Singer Ruby Turner and Ruby Nash Garnett of the Romantics both carry it, and it has held a place in the U.S. top 1,000 since 1900.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Red jewel
- Pronunciation: ROO-bee
- Variations: Rubi, Rubye, Rubina, Rubine, Rúby, Rubey, Rubiy
- Namesakes: Ruby Turner, a British Jamaican singer-songwriter and actress. Ruby Nash Garnett, an American singer for the rhythm and blues group Ruby & the Romantics.
- Popularity: Ruby ranked #64 in the U.S. in 2025 with 3,554 girls, one of four names here inside the top 100, though still below the #23 it held in 1913.
Ruri
Ruri is Japanese for lapis lazuli, the traditional December birthstone, which makes it a quieter way of giving a child that stone. Depending on the kanji, it can also read as current or flow, or as logic. Musician Ruri Mizutani carries it, and Ruriko and Koruri extend it. Two syllables, both soft, and it has reached American records only once.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Lapis Lazuli
- Pronunciation: roo-REE
- Variations: Ruiri, Rurai, Ruriko, Koruri
- Namesakes: Ruri Mizutani, a Japanese member of the music group Bon-Bon Blanco.
- Popularity: Ruri has charted in the U.S. once, in 2021, at #14,935.
Sania
Sania is an Urdu Persian girl’s name read as splendid, brilliant, and radiant, carrying too the sense of pearl, a comparison that works given how scarce natural pearls are. Pakistani actress Sania Saeed and tennis player Sania Mirza, once the world’s top-ranked doubles player, both answer to it. It had a run in the mid-2000s and has fallen back a long way since, which leaves it uncommon again.
- Origin: Hindi
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: sah-nee-yAAh,, saa-NEE
- Variations: Sanja, Sanya, Shania, Sanaia, Saniah
- Namesakes: Sania Saeed, a Pakistani actress and television host. Sani Mirza, a professional tennis player and former doubles world #1.
- Popularity: Sania ranked #5,682 in the U.S. in 2025, down about 64% on the previous decade, after peaking at #1,396 in 2006.
Saphira
Saphira is an English form of the Greek Sapphira, from sappheiros, and behind that the Hebrew sappir, which named lapis lazuli before it named sapphire. Sapphires stood for wisdom, calm, and purity, and were believed to guard against poison and ill intent; medieval priests wore blue ones to stand for heaven. Indonesian actress Saphira Indah is a modern bearer. The single p keeps it a shade softer than Sapphire itself.
- Origin: English, Hebrew
- Meaning: Blue gemstone, lapis lazuli
- Pronunciation: sah-FIE-ruh
- Variations: Sapphira, Sappheire, Saffira, Safira, Saphia
- Namesakes: Saphira Indah, an Indonesian actress.
- Popularity: Saphira ranked #1,775 in the U.S. in 2025, close to its best of #1,541 in 2017.
Sapphire
Sapphire is corundum, the same mineral as ruby, and while blue is what everyone pictures it occurs right across the spectrum. The pinkish-orange variety is called padparadscha, lotus flower in Sri Lanka. One likely root is the Sanskrit sanipriya, dear to Saturn. Saph and Fire both fall out of it, useful shortenings for a name that reached the U.S. top 1,000 in 2022 before easing back.
- Origin: Greek, Hebrew
- Meaning: Blue gemstone, lapis lazuli
- Pronunciation: SAHF-ai-uh
- Variations: Sapphira, Saffira, Safira, Sapphires, Sapphir, Saphire
- Popularity: Sapphire ranked #1,058 in the U.S. in 2025, just off its best of #913 in 2022, and is up about 110% on the previous decade.
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock known for its unique ability to split into thin layers, known as fissility. Shale is known for forming interesting shapes, such as the high volume of heart-shaped rocks found along Fox Island, Alaska (5). Shale could be a keeper if you’re looking for a unique name full of nature’s wonders – even more perfect for doting parents.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Laminated clayey rock
- Pronunciation: shayl
- Variations: Shalé, Shaleh, Shalle
- Popularity: Shale last appeared in U.S. records in 2007 at #20,070, with a best rank of #13,177 in 1996.
Silica
Silica is silicon dioxide, most familiar as quartz, and it forms the backbone of a long list of minerals: olivine, garnet, chalcedony, beryl, tourmaline, the micas, and most clays. As a name it sounds closer to Celia than to anything in a laboratory, soft rather than clinical, borrowed from a mineral that shows up almost everywhere quietly.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Mineral name
- Pronunciation: SIH-lee-kah
- Popularity: Silica has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line, which leaves the field entirely open.
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained foliated metamorphic rock made from compressed clay or volcanic ash, and it splits into flat sheets cleanly enough to have roofed most of northern Europe. Grey and calm as a word, it has been used for both girls and boys in America, climbing steadily since 2018.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: A type of shale
- Pronunciation: SLAYT
- Variations: Slater, Slates, Slayte, Slaete, Slaste
- Popularity: Slate ranked #2,712 in the U.S. in 2025, near its best of #2,381 in 2018, and is up about 84% on the previous decade.
Tamako
Tamako reads as jewel child in Japanese, though the meaning shifts with the kanji chosen. Painter Tamako Kataoka worked in Nihonga, using ground mineral pigments, and Fujiwara no Tamako was empress consort in the early 1100s. It also turns up regularly in manga and anime, including the 2013 film Tamako in Moratorium. Three even syllables make it easy to say and hard to shorten.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Jewel child
- Pronunciation: TAH-MA-KOH
- Variations: Taimako
- Namesakes: Tamako Kataoka, a Japanese Nihonga painter (with mineral pigments). Fujiwara no Tamako, a Japanese empress consort of Japan (1118 – 1124).
- Popularity: Tamako has no U.S. birth record at all, and remains concentrated in Japan.
Tangerine
Tangerine quartz is a clear quartz carrying a thin orange coating, and collectors want it for exactly that color. Led Zeppelin gave the word a second life with a song of the same name. Some hold that the stone helps with recovery from old hurts. As a name it is playful and unmistakably a color, and it has not appeared in American records since 1995.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Orange-colored citrus fruit
- Pronunciation: tan-juh-reen
- Popularity: Tangerine last appeared in U.S. records in 1995 at #15,519, off its best of #5,889 in 1972.
Tanzanite
Tanzanite is a blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite, found in exactly one place on earth: the Merelani Hills of northern Tanzania, south of Mount Kilimanjaro. It joins blue topaz, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and blue zircon as a December birthstone. Wearers have long credited it with calm and sharper intuition. Four syllables give it real presence, and Tanz makes a workable everyday short form.
- Origin: Africa
- Meaning: Gemstone name
- Pronunciation: tan-zuh-nite
- Variations: Tanzanita
- Popularity: Tanzanite has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line, so no U.S. ranking exists.
Topaz
Topaz is an aluminum and fluorine silicate that occurs in many colors, though golden yellow and blue are what most people picture, and golden topaz shares November with citrine. One account traces the word to the Greek topazion, the old name for St John’s Island in the Red Sea, called the Land of the Topaz for the yellow stones mined there, which later turned out to be chrysolite and olivine. Another traces it to the Sanskrit tapas, fire and heat. South African model Topaz Page-Green runs the nonprofit Lunchbox Fund, and the name’s ending on a hard z makes it one of the sharper-sounding names on this list.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Fire, heat
- Pronunciation: TOE-phaz
- Namesakes: Topaz Page-Green, a South African model and president of the non-profit corporation The Lunchbox Fund.
- Popularity: Topaz last appeared in U.S. records in 2023 at #13,338, off its best of #5,276 in 1989.
Tourmaline
Tourmaline is a crystalline silicate group that occurs in more colors than almost any other gem family, which is precisely what its name says: the Sinhalese toramalli means stone with mixed colors. It is the modern birthstone for October. Black tourmaline is associated with confidence and the stone generally with easing stress. Writer and filmmaker Tourmaline is its best-known bearer, a fitting namesake for a stone defined by its range of color.
- Origin: French, Indian
- Meaning: Colorful gem
- Pronunciation: tuor-muh-leen
- Namesakes: Tourmaline, previously Reina Gossett, an American transgender writer, filmmaker, and activist.
- Popularity: Tourmaline has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line, making it one of the rarest picks on this page.
Ula
Ula is a diminutive of Urszula, the Polish form of Ursula, from the Latin ursa, little bear. A separate Celtic reading gives it as gem of the sea, which is what earns it a place on this list. Slovenian singer Ula Lozar carries it. Three letters, two origins, and a sound that survives most languages intact.
- Origin: Scandinavian, Latin
- Meaning: Gem of the sea, little bear
- Pronunciation: OO-lah
- Variations: Ulla, Ursule, Ursula, Ursella, Orsola
- Namesakes: Ula Ložar, a Slovenian singer.
- Popularity: Ula ranked #17,088 in the U.S. in 2025 on five births, a long fall from the #982 it reached in 1919.
Umina
Umina reads differently depending on the kanji, with sea and beauty among the options, and it is also given as emerald. The English word emerald arrived through the Old French esmeraude. Cleopatra held the only emerald mines then known and treated the stone as her own, and emerald is May’s birthstone. Three soft syllables, no hard consonants, and no American birth record at all.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Emerald
- Pronunciation: OO-mee-nah
- Variations: Umiña, Uminah
- Popularity: Umina has never been published in U.S. birth records, so it stays genuinely uncommon.
Yaqoot
Yaqoot is used for boys and girls across Urdu, Hindi, and Bangla speaking communities and means a precious stone; it also names the ruby specifically. Ruby is July’s birthstone, and the Sanskrit ratnaraj calls it king of the precious stones. Emirati footballer Bader Yaqoot carries it as a surname. Of every name on this page that American records have ever listed, this is the rarest.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Precious stone
- Pronunciation: YAHH-koot
- Variations: Yaqoote, Yaquoot, Yaqot
- Namesakes: Bader Yaqoot, a football player from the United Arab Emirates.
- Popularity: Yaqoot ranked #17,173 in the U.S. in 2025, the rarest charted name on this list, given to about one in every 333,333 American babies.
Yari
Yari is a small name with an unsettled history. Some sources give it as Spanish or Hebrew for small gold jewelry, and past that the record thins out quickly. Italian motorcycle racer Yari Montella is its best-known bearer. It works for a girl or a boy, and racer Yari Montella carries it while the name itself keeps climbing quietly in the U.S.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Gold
- Pronunciation: yah-ree
- Variations: Yara, Yariv, Yuri, Yana
- Namesakes: Yari Montella, an Italian motorcycle racer.
- Popularity: Yari ranked #4,167 in the U.S. in 2025, just off its best of #3,573 in 2024, and is up about 99% on the previous decade.
Zahavi
Zahavi is Hebrew for golden and is far more often an Israeli surname than a first name, carried by footballer Eran Zahavi and philosopher Dan Zahavi. As a Middle Eastern name for a boy it is unusual without being hard to say. Three syllables with the stress in the middle, and it has been on American records only since 2017.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Gold
- Pronunciation: zeh-HAH-vee
- Variations: Zehavi, Zhavi, Zahafi, Zehava
- Namesakes: Eran Zahavi, an Israeli professional footballer. Dan Zahavi, a Danish philosopher.
- Popularity: Zahavi ranked #11,967 in the U.S. in 2025, off its best of #7,721 in 2023, and first charted in 2017.
Zariza
Zariza is a Hebrew name read as gold and brilliantly bright, and it sits alongside Zahavi as another way of saying the same thing. Very little is documented about it, which is unusual even among the rarest names here. If you want a Z name nobody in the room will have met, this is the one.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Gold, brilliantly bright
- Pronunciation: ZAH-ree-zah
- Variations: Zarifa, Zarina
- Popularity: Zariza has never reached the SSA’s five-births publication line.
Zircon
Zircon belongs to the nesosilicate minerals and is the main source of zirconium. The word comes from the Persian zargun, gold-hued, and the stone occurs colorless, yellow-golden, red, brown, blue, and green. Yellow, orange, and red zircon goes by hyacinth, while blue zircon is December’s birthstone. Medieval belief held that it could pull a person into deep sleep, ward off evil spirits, and sharpen judgment.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Gold-hued
- Pronunciation: ZUH-KON
- Popularity: Zircon has no U.S. ranking, having never been given to five American babies in a single year.
Zümra
Zümra comes from the Turkish zumrut, emerald, which itself goes back to the Greek term for the stone, smaragdos. It gives you the gem without the length of Esmeralda or the plainness of Emerald. The umlaut travels badly, so Zumra is the usual simplification. For a May baby, it is about as rare as the stone’s own name gets.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Emerald
- Pronunciation: zuhm-RAH
- Variations: Zumra, Zümray, Zümerya
- Popularity: Zümra has no U.S. birth record and is heard mainly in Turkey.
