There is no single, ancient birthstone list
If you’ve ever seen two different stones given for the same birth month, that’s usually not an error on either source’s part. The list most jewellers and gift shops use is barely a century old, it has been changed three times, and a source printed before one of those changes will differ from one printed after it.
The list of 1912
In August 1912 the National Association of Jewelers, meeting in Kansas City, adopted a list with one birth-stone for each month and an alternate for five of them. It was a trade standard: jewellers agreeing on a set of stones they could sell, in place of a patchwork of older lists that disagreed with each other.
The primary record of it is G. F. Kunz’s The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (1913), which prints the list on pages 319–320 and describes it as “the substitution of a new schedule for the time-honored list”. Kunz did not approve. He objected that it moved the ruby from December to July, took peridot away from September to make it August’s alternate, and gave September the sapphire. The same book prints the older lists he preferred, which trace back through centuries of European custom to the stones of Aaron’s breastplate in Exodus and the foundation stones in Revelation.
Three changes since
- 1952: the Jewelry Industry Council of America added alexandrite to June and citrine to November, put zircon in place of December’s lapis lazuli, moved aquamarine ahead of bloodstone for March, and named October’s alternate as pink tourmaline (tourmaline had been the alternate since 1912).
- 2002: the American Gem Trade Association added tanzanite to December.
- 2016: the American Gem Trade Association and Jewelers of America added spinel to August.
The result is the list GIA, the Gemological Institute of America, publishes today. Other countries have their own: Britain’s National Association of Goldsmiths drew up its own list in 1937.
The two lists side by side
| Month | 1912 (birth-stone, then alternate) | Today |
|---|---|---|
| January | Garnet | Garnet |
| February | Amethyst | Amethyst |
| March | Bloodstone, aquamarine | Aquamarine, bloodstone |
| April | Diamond | Diamond |
| May | Emerald | Emerald |
| June | Pearl, moonstone | Pearl, moonstone, alexandrite |
| July | Ruby | Ruby |
| August | Sardonyx, peridot | Peridot, spinel, sardonyx |
| September | Sapphire | Sapphire |
| October | Opal, tourmaline | Opal, tourmaline |
| November | Topaz | Topaz, citrine |
| December | Turquoise, lapis lazuli | Turquoise, zircon, tanzanite |
Seven months are unchanged. March has the same two stones in the opposite order, which is why one source says bloodstone and another aquamarine. August’s order has changed too — GIA lists peridot first today — but no source records when, and GIA does not rank a month’s stones, so the order of today’s list is GIA’s and nothing more. June, August and November each gained a stone, and December gained two and lost lapis lazuli. Between them the two lists name 22 stones: 17 on the 1912 list, and five added since.
Why this matters for a reference site
None of this is a matter of astronomical fact, unlike the zodiac calculations elsewhere on this site — see why zodiac dates shift for a case where there is a single correct computed answer. Birthstones are a naming convention, agreed on by a trade body for commercial reasons and amended by trade bodies since. Reporting “your birthstone is X” as if it were a fact about the world would be misleading. What can be reported is which stones the 1912 list gave a month, which stones today’s list gives it, and who changed what in between. That is what the birthstone pages on this site do.
Whatever meaning or property is attributed to a birthstone — protection, luck, emotional association — belongs entirely to tradition and folklore. No claim here is a claim about what a stone does.
The practical takeaway
If a birthstone list surprises you, check its date before assuming it’s mistaken. A list that gives bloodstone first for March, sardonyx first for August or lapis lazuli for December is following the 1912 list or something older; one with tanzanite or spinel is no older than 2002 or 2016.
If you’re choosing a stone for a gift and want to know how it will stand up to wear, birthstone care covers which ones are hard-wearing and which need looking after. For the plant equivalent of the same idea, see what a birth flower is.