This post was originally published on January 26, 2012. It was substantially revised and re-posted on January 5, 2015.
Gemstone names for girls are huge, and we’re all about colorful and ends in -et names, too. If Scarlett and Ruby can chart in the US Top 100, how about this one?
Thanks to Marianne and Larkin for suggesting Garnet as our Baby Name of the Day.
Garnet: Vintage Revival
It’s easy to dismiss unfamiliar noun names as modern innovations, cousin to Apple and Blue.
Except Garnet appeared in the US Top 1000 most years from 1884 through 1944, and elaborations like Garnetta were also in use. Garnet peaked in the 1900s and 1910s, reaching as high as #376 in 1911.
If the 100-year rule applies, Garnet is ready for revival right about now.
Garnet: Gemstone
If Garnet has history aplenty as a given name, it’s even more storied as a gemstone. Jewelry featuring garnets traces back to 3000 BC.
They aren’t always red, but that’s the most common color. In fact, the name comes from the French word grenat, meaning dark red, via the Latin granatum. It’s possible that granatum comes from the pomegranate fruit, famous in the myth of Persephone. Whether true or not, the color of a pomegranate is about the same as the gemstone.
Unlike diamonds, these gems aren’t top of mind when we think of bling. And the sound of Garnet is restrained. It’s a nice compromise – a name at home in the jeweler’s case, but still with a tailored, refined style.
And if your child arrives in January? This is the birthstone for the first month of the year, making Garnet a seasonal choice more subtle than Winter or Snow.
Garnet: Surname Name
While the numbers give Garnet to the girls, there’s a long history of Garnet as a masculine name and a surname, too.
There are a few possible origins for the surname, also spelled Garnett and Garnette:
- The most obvious possibility is that the surname was given to a jeweler.
- Interestingly, hinge-makers might have also become known as Garnet. The cross-garnet hinge – it looks a little bit like the letter T – was around well into the American colonial period.
- There’s also an Old French name Guarin, derived from the Germanic warin – guard. There might be a connection there, too.
Notable bearers of the name include:
- British Army Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, best known for his service in Africa in the 1870s and 80s. Known for his efficiency, the phrase “everything’s all Sir Garnet” entered into general use. Gilbert and Sullivan based their “very model of a modern Major-General” on Wolseley.
- World War I flying ace Garnet Malley later became an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek.
Garnet: Unisex Possibility
A handful of names feel truly unisex – typically nature names with a tailored sound. Rowan is the best example, but Garnet fits on the list, too.
After all, names like Everett, Emmett, and Beckett are fashion-forward for our sons, but Violet, Scarlett, and Juliet make the -et ending just as wearable for our daughters.
Above all, Garnet is rare. In 2013, it was given to just seven girls, and fewer than five boys.
If you’re after something colorful with ties to the natural world, Garnet is an appealing possibility – for a son or a daughter.
We considered Garnet as a second name for our daughter who was born at the beginning of this month, but my husband couldn’t shake the image of the male Garnet he grew up with. That Garnet would have been born in the mid-seventies. (We ended up going with Scarlet.)
I don’t think of Garnet and Garnett the same name. Garnet feels feminine and I pronounce it GARN-it. Garnett makes me think of basketball player Kevin Garnett (gar-NET)and it feels masculine.
I just vaguely remembered a civil war era romance novel from Scholastic with an antagonist called Garnet. I never caught the Garnet/Scarlett connection before, but that was a brilliant choice by the author.
Anyways back in the 80’s, I wasn’t familiar with the birthstone, I just liked that it seemed like a feminine form of Gary (my brother’s name.) I still like it and I’s consider it a contender for a middle name.
The dean of my college within the university I attended is Dr. Garnett, so Garnet reads surnamey and male to me. Plus I keep wanting to pronounce it like Gar-nette. No thanks, I’ll stick with Pearl 🙂
I do much prefer Garnet for a girl, because it does make me think of the Jewel and I think Jewel names should be feminine. Though this is my birthstone, it is my favorite jewel name, but I do kind of like it in a guilty pleasure sort of way.
I love Garnet. Garnet and Beryl (so underutilized!) are my favorite gemstone names, followed by Ruby, Amber, and Pearl. Opal I’d love to love (since i love the stone) but it sounds too much like “dopey” for me.
How weird is it that Ruby is a “classy” gemstone name, but Sapphire, which is the same gem, sounds “stripperish?”
Ooh, Beryl is lovely. I agree it’s under used and aviatrix Beryl Markham would make a daring namesake. If only we could keep people from pronouncing it like barrel.
I don’t think of Sapphire as stripperish, rather it make me think of the Angry Black Woman trope.
Garnet on a boy has the nn possibility of Gary. On a girl, Net or Netta. I don’t usually like word names, but this one is growing on me. Plus, I love garnets.
I’m with Lou. My first association was reading Jacqueline Wilson’s “Double Act” at the age of ten, starring twin sisters named Ruby and Garnet. It is still hugely popular book with young girls today.
I can see it used on both boys and girls.
Love it! It’s a little crazy, but people could get used to it! And it doesn’t have the GWTW problem or Scarlet letter problem.
I see it as a girl’s name. And I don’t mean to offend any Scarletts with my comments, those were just my ambivalences when my husband wanted Scarlett for our 2nd. (We went with Gemma.)
Altho Persephone has her own issues as a protagonist.
I first came across this name in a book where Garnet was the identical twin sister of Ruby, so the name seems quite feminine to me and potentially a good proportion of the females in my generation in the UK since it was a Jacqueline Wilson book which were and still are extremely popular in the under 10 market. I could see why Garnet could work for a lad, though – certainly as a quirkly middle name choice.
Thanks for profiling this name. Very interesting! It has all the ingredients of a name I would like, but I can’t help thinking about how it rhymes with “darn it”. 🙂 Darn it!