Back in the Gay Nineties–the 1890s, that is–there was a major craze for flower names, with Rose, Daisy and Lillie high on the popularity lists. Concurrent with that, there was a mini-fad for jewel names, as in Ruby, Pearl and Opal. Today, history does seem to be repeating itself. Not only are we seeing a name garden blooming with Roses, Lilys and Daisys, but also more exotic blossom names like Jasmine, Violet, Lilac, Poppy, Azalea, Lotus, Aster, and Zinnia. And there are signs of a jewel name revival as well, more colorful than the dated Crystal and Diamond: Ruby is a hot hipster name, Pearl was picked by SNLer Maya Rudolph, and Opal is the name of kid characters in several recent movies.

　　In the jewelry case, there’s a wide variety of both common (Coral, Amber) and unusual names. First, there are the modern birthstone names (others were used in the past), which could be tied to the baby’s birth month:

　　GARNET for January

　　AMETHYST for FebruaryAQUAMARINE for March

　　DIAMOND for April

　　EMERALD for May

　　PEARL for June

　　RUBY for July

　　PERIDOT for August

　　SAPPHIRE for September

　　OPAL for October

　　TOPAZ (yellow) or CITRINE for November

　　TOPAZ (blue) or TURQUOISE for December

　　And here are some others that might be up for consideration:

　　ADULAIAALAMANDINE/ALMANDINEAMBER

　　BERYLCARNELIANCORALGEUDA (pronounced gay-oo-la)HYACINTH ( a flower AND a gem name)IRIDOT (an old name for opal)JACINTH

　　JADE

　　JASPER

　　LAPIS LAZULILARIMARMATARAONYX

　　QUARTZVIOLANEZIRCON

　　And then there are some interesting foreign variations. Bear in mind that since Margaret means “pearl,” any one of its many offshoots could be considered a gem name–I’ve just included a couple..

　　AMBRA (Italian for amber)BIJOU (French for jewel)BIYU (Chinese for jasper)EMERAUDE (French for emerald)ESME (Persian for emerald)ESMERALDA (Spanish for emerald)FAIRUZ/FAIRUZA (Arabic for turquoise)GEMMA (Italian for gem)GIADA (Italian for jade)GRETEL (German for pearl)GRIET (Dutch for pearl)JUMANA (Arabic for pearl)MARIT (Scandinavian for pearl)PENINA (Henrew for pearl)PERLA (Spanish and Italian for pearl)PERLE (French for pearl)PHAILIN (Thai for sapphire)RURI (Japanese for emeraldSAPPHIRA (Greek for sapphire–in Hebrew it’s spelled with one ‘p’)SHINJI (Japanese for pearl)ULA (Celtic for gem of the sea)