Names List: Jewel and Jewels.

I’m probably marking myself out to be ostracised here, but I feel it’s time I made a name-related confession – that is, I absolutely love the name Jewel for a girl. It’s my ultimate guilty pleasure: discerning namers may turn up their noses and cry, “Unimaginative! Uneducated! Trashy!”, but will that turn me from the beauty of Jewel? Nay, I say. She doesn’t look especially pretty or feminine when written down to the untrained eye (not in an era of Isabellas and Amelias, at least), but I can’t help but find a particular gorgeousness in her. Say her: Jewel. If we strip away the trashy connotations (and there are trashy connotations, but we shan’t go into those here), she’s such a regal-sounding name – so strong, and with such a beautiful meaning. A precious gemstone! How lovely. Sarah Jewel. Jewel Florentine. The combo possibilities are endless. I love Jewel; I really love her.

However – with the aforementioned connotations considered (because we live in an age wherein “pretty word for a treasure” has morphed in the public consciousness to “porn-star name”), Jewel might not be the most useable of names out there, and I’ll admit that. She has been used as a name in the past, of course, for males as well as for females: as a boys’ name Jewel peaked in 1907 (coming #405 on the popularity charts for boys born that year – oh my days), and as a girls’ name she reached her climax in 1904 (reaching spot number #198 – see, she’s not quite the modern-day abomination she’s made out to be!). She continued to be used on baby girls with some regularity until the mid-1970s, although her popularity as a male name died out in the Fifties, and lately there’s been a spike in baby Jewels once again (she was #933 for little girls born in 2010). Perhaps the most famous Jewel is the eponymous singer-songwriter, and the association with her might be strong enough to put some people off – though, honestly, I think the principal reason people are reluctant to touch our pretty little Jewel is the fact that she simply has a reputation for being a “no-class”, “trashy”, “trailer-park” name. Classism is dreadful, isn’t it? And inaccurate. Sigh. Such are the times in which we live.

For those of you who enjoy Jewel’s sound, there are obviously the options of Julie, Julia, Juliet, Jude, Julius, Julian and so on to be considered. If it’s her meaning, however, that has you enraptured, there’s a whole world of names out there, both established and more unusual, that are have precious stones in their etymology. My particular favourites are:

·         Gemma – quite popular in the UK (I have classes with several, aged in their late teens), with Dutch and Italian origins; she means “precious stone”, though less overtly than Jewel does, and I think she’s adorable.

·         Peninnah – feminine; meaning, again, “precious stone”; used in the Bible, and depressingly underused in the English-speaking world at least.

·         Dunstan – male; meaning “dark stone”, so it could be considered jewel-ish at a stretch. In this vein, other “stone” names for boys could fit under Jewel’s banner –Winston (“joy stone”), Torsten (“Thor’s stone”), Stanley (“stone clearing”), Peter (“rock”), etc.

And, of course, if you’re simply looking for a gemstone name, you could always consider:

·         Abalone – abalone (“AH-bah-loh-nee”) sea-snail shells are a source of mother-of-pearl, and isn’t this a pearly little name, if we set the snails aside? Abby could work as a nickname; with Avalon and suchlike climbing the charts I don’t think she’d be too much of a stretch to use.

·         Amber – from the word for orangey-brown fossil resin (to be blunt), and undoubtedly one of the most popular gem-names on this list: it peaked at #13 on the US girls’ popularity charts in the 1980s, and has been used fairly steadily as a female name ever since.

·         Amethyst – derived (oh gracious) from the Greek for “not drunk”, as amethysts were originally believed to protect against drunkenness; could potentially be shortened to Amy.

·         Beryl – a family name for me, Beryl is a gorgeous pale-green gemstone as well as a name that has been used for girls and boys alike over the past century, peaking for both sexes just before the 1920s.

·         Coral – isn’t Coral pretty? She peaked in the 1880s as a female name, and I think she’s ready for a comeback. Neil Gaiman lovers could use her as a short form of Coraline.

·         Diamond – the be-all and end-all of precious stones, so to speak: Diamond is a princess of a name, and because of that I think she’d fit best on a girl (though, as Diamond is also a fairly common English surname, I could potentially see Diamond on a boy – perhaps in the middle name slot?).

·         Emerald/Esmaralda – these are both sooo pretty, as anyone who grew up on The Hunchback of Notre Dame is bound to reiterate: Victor Hugo’s Esmeralda’s name is the Spanish form of Emerald. Emeralds are December’s birthstone – and, with the Emily/Emma trend right now, this could be an inventive way to get the nickname Emmy.

·         Garnet – another potentially unisex name, used both for males and females frequently at the turn of the Twentieth Century. A strong name with unmistakable Edwardian charm.

·         Ivory – popularity charts in the US says this has been more consistently a male name than a female name over the last century, but this is undoubtedly another name that could be used for all genders. Just like the substance it describes, Ivory is equal parts stunning and strong.

·         Jade – consistently popular in the English-speaking world as well as further afield (it was #2 for girls born in France in 2009, and was the middle name of the late Amy Winehouse, who was born in England in 1983), and simple without being plain.

·         Jasper – generally given to males; a strong, handsome, well-established name (Evelyn Waugh used it for a character in Brideshead Revisited back in 1945; it’s traditionally assigned to one of the Wise Men who visited Jesus at His birth, and has been used as an English name since the Middle Ages). Variants Gaspard and Casper, to name but two, are less commonplace in the English-speaking world, and are just as striking.

·         Jet – from the fossilised tree-bark, from which the phrase “jet black” originates: a headstrong, spunky little name that I can picture easily on a child born today. A variant spelling with two Ts (Jett, as in Joan; this is also the name of George Lucas’s son) ranked #353 in the US popularity charts for boys born in 2010. Jet/Jett could be a standalone name for any gender, or could be a nickname (Jethro, anyone?).

·         Obsidian – ohhh Obsidian. This name is so handsome. A quick Google search suggests that Obsidian is quite a popular self-renaming choice among male neo-pagans and lifestyle goths –although there is a definite ooky-spooky quality to this name (I’m picturing a Victorian sorcerer, decked out in velvet and gold…yeah). Obsidian comes from volcanoes. A powerful, powerful name.

·         Onyx – again: super ooky-spooky! Derived from the Latin word for “claw”, sacred to Venus and fabulously black, Onyx is a wonderfully gothic gem-name that could work on a child of any gender.

·         Opal – simple, beautiful, refreshing. Ops, the goddess to whom opals may have been sacred in Ancient Rome, was the wife of Saturn – and her festival is called “Opalia”.

·         Pearl – another family name for me, and a classic: Pearl has that vintage flair that’s inspiring so many namers lately. She’s been used both for males and females.

·         Peridot – pronounced either “PER-ih-dot” or “PER-ih-doh”, depending on how fancy you’re feeling; peridot is the birthstone for August.

·         Ruby – another popular gem-name, Ruby really needs no introduction: she’s been used as a name since the Victorian era, and was the seventh most popular name for girls born in the UK in 2010. Pretty, confident and popular: Ruby is the cheerleader of gem-names right now, in the best possible way.

·         Sapphire – September’s birthstone, and not at all unheard of as a given name; I’ve met one or two who went by Saffy.

·         Topaz – November’s birthstone; rarely used, but Topaz could probably work for any gender as a first or middle name (Joseph Topaz as a combo was stuck in my head a few days ago, incidentally), following the quirky-vintage trend (Ava Topaz, anyone?).

Gem names can be wonderfully pretty, and always fun to play around and make combos with – so, even if Jewel is absolutely out of the question where your naming taste is concerned, perhaps you wouldn’t be quite so adverse to a little Peninnah Jade? :)