Birthstones by Month: Complete Chart, Colors and Meanings

Birthstones are the rare piece of jewelry tradition that almost everyone participates in, often without knowing where it came from. You know your month has a stone. You may know it is a sapphire or an opal. What most people never get is the full picture: which months have more than one official stone, what the colors actually symbolize, and, most practically, which birthstones are hard enough to wear every single day and which will chip if you wear them as a ring.

This guide covers all of it. Start with the chart, then read your month, then check the durability table before you buy anything set in a ring.

Birthstone Chart by Month

This is the modern birthstone list used by jewelers in the US and UK today. Where a month has several stones, all are considered official.

Where the Birthstone List Came From

The idea is ancient. The most cited origin is the breastplate of Aaron described in the Book of Exodus, set with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Scholars later connected those twelve stones to the twelve months of the year and the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the habit of wearing the stone for your birth month took hold in Europe by the 1500s.

The modern list, however, is much newer and much more commercial. In 1912 the American National Retail Jewelers Association standardized it so that jewelers across the country would stop selling different stones for the same month. It has been revised several times since: tanzanite was added to December in 2002, and spinel joined August in 2016. That is why your grandmother may insist your birthstone is something different from what a shop tells you today. Both can be correct.

January Birthstone: Garnet

Garnet is a deep, wine-toned red, though the family also produces green, orange and even color-changing varieties. Traditionally it was a traveler’s stone, carried for safe passage and given as a symbol of loyalty and enduring friendship. At 6.5 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale it is reasonably tough, making it a sensible choice for a ring worn regularly.

February Birthstone: Amethyst

Amethyst is quartz colored purple by traces of iron. The Greeks believed it prevented drunkenness, which is where the name comes from, and it has carried associations with clear thinking and self-control ever since. It ranks 7 on the Mohs scale, is widely available in large sizes, and is one of the best value-for-money gemstones you can buy. Its one weakness is sunlight: prolonged exposure can fade the purple.

March Birthstone: Aquamarine and Bloodstone

Aquamarine is a pale sea blue member of the beryl family, the same family as emerald. Sailors carried it for protection at sea, and it is linked to calm, courage and honest speech. Bloodstone, the older March stone, is a dark green chalcedony flecked with red, associated with vitality and grounding. Aquamarine is the far more popular choice today and at 7.5 to 8 it wears extremely well.

April Birthstone: Diamond

April gets the hardest and most famous stone of all. Diamond sits at 10 on the Mohs scale, the top of the scale, which is precisely why it dominates engagement rings. Symbolically it stands for clarity, invincibility and love that does not wear down. If diamond is your birthstone and your budget does not stretch to it, white sapphire and moissanite are the two substitutes that hold up best in daily wear.

May Birthstone: Emerald

Emerald is the green that every other green gemstone is measured against, and it has meant rebirth, fertility and devotion since Cleopatra’s reign. It is also the most temperamental stone on this list. Although it rates 7.5 to 8 for hardness, nearly every emerald contains internal fractures, which makes it prone to chipping on impact. Wear emerald as earrings or a pendant freely; think twice about an emerald ring you never take off.

June Birthstone: Pearl, Moonstone and Alexandrite

June has three stones, and they could hardly be more different. Pearl is organic, formed inside a living mollusc, and has symbolized purity and wisdom for millennia. Moonstone glows with a soft internal blue shimmer called adularescence and is tied to intuition and feminine energy. Alexandrite is the rarest of the three and genuinely changes color, green in daylight and red under lamplight, which is why it symbolizes transformation. Pearls are soft, 2.5 to 4.5, and need real care.

July Birthstone: Ruby

Ruby is corundum colored red by chromium, making it the geological sibling of sapphire. It has been the stone of passion, courage and life force across nearly every culture that mined it, and in Sanskrit texts it is called ratnaraj, king of gems. At 9 on the Mohs scale it is second only to diamond in hardness, so a ruby ring will happily be worn for decades.

August Birthstone: Peridot, Spinel and Sardonyx

Peridot is a distinctive yellow-toned lime green and, unusually, occurs in only one color. Some peridot arrives on Earth inside meteorites. It is associated with good fortune and the lifting of dark moods. Spinel, added in 2016, comes in nearly every color and was historically mistaken for ruby, including in several crown jewels. Sardonyx, the oldest August stone, is a banded red and white chalcedony linked to strength and stable relationships.

September Birthstone: Sapphire

Sapphire means blue to most people, but the stone occurs in every color except red, where it is called ruby instead. Pink, yellow and the peachy padparadscha sapphires are all genuine sapphires. It has symbolized wisdom, loyalty and truth since the Middle Ages, when clergy wore it as a sign of heaven. At 9 on the Mohs scale it is one of the most practical gemstones in existence for everyday jewelry.

October Birthstone: Opal and Tourmaline

Opal displays play-of-color, flashes of shifting spectral color caused by microscopic silica spheres diffracting light. No two opals are identical, which is why it symbolizes creativity and imagination. It is also delicate: 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, with water content that means it can craze or crack if exposed to sudden temperature changes or dry heat. Tourmaline is the tougher October alternative and comes in more colors than any other gemstone, including watermelon tourmaline with a pink core and green rim.

November Birthstone: Topaz and Citrine

Both November stones are golden, warm and affordable in large sizes. Imperial topaz, a peachy orange-pink, is the most valuable variety; blue topaz is the most common on the market and is almost always treated. Citrine is quartz in shades of pale lemon to deep madeira, long nicknamed the merchant’s stone for its association with prosperity and abundance. Topaz rates 8, citrine 7, so both are durable, though topaz has perfect cleavage and can split on a hard knock.

December Birthstone: Turquoise, Tanzanite, Zircon and Blue Topaz

December has the most crowded stone list, all of them blue. Turquoise is the ancient one, prized from Egypt to the American Southwest as a protective stone, soft at 5 to 6 and often stabilized to make it wearable. Tanzanite, found in only one place on earth near Mount Kilimanjaro, shifts between violet and blue depending on the angle. Zircon, not to be confused with synthetic cubic zirconia, is a natural stone with a brilliance close to diamond.

Which Birthstones Survive Daily Wear

This is the part most birthstone guides leave out, and it is the part that decides whether a gift is still beautiful in five years. The Mohs scale measures scratch resistance from 1 to 10. Everyday dust contains quartz, which sits at 7, so anything below 7 will gradually dull if worn unprotected on a hand.

The practical rule: if your birthstone is below 7, wear it as earrings, a pendant or an occasional ring, and choose a bezel setting that shields the edges rather than a raised prong setting.

Birthstone or Zodiac Stone?

These two systems overlap but are not the same. Birthstones follow calendar months. Zodiac stones follow the astrological signs, which straddle two months each, so someone born on 25 September has September’s sapphire as a birthstone but Libra’s stones by zodiac. Many people wear both, and there is no rule against it.

If you want the astrological version, we have a detailed guide for every sign:

• Aries (21 March to 19 April) and Taurus (20 April to 20 May)
• Gemini (21 May to 20 June) and Cancer (21 June to 22 July)
• Leo (23 July to 22 August) and Virgo (23 August to 22 September)
• Libra (23 September to 22 October) and Scorpio (23 October to 21 November)
• Sagittarius (22 November to 21 December) and Capricorn (22 December to 19 January)
• Aquarius (20 January to 18 February) and Pisces (19 February to 20 March)

For the meanings behind the stones themselves rather than the calendar, see our guide to crystal healing gemstones and how to wear them. And if you are shopping for an anniversary rather than a birthday, there is a separate tradition entirely, covered in our wedding anniversary gemstone by year guide.

How to Wear and Gift Birthstone Jewelry

A single birthstone on a fine chain is the safest gift in this category, because it works on anyone and needs no sizing. If you are buying a ring instead, you will need her measurement first; our guide to measuring ring size covers how to do it without asking her.

Family birthstone pieces have become the strongest trend in this space: a mother’s necklace with one stone per child, or a stacking ring set where each band carries a different month. They work because the meaning is personal rather than decorative.

One buying note. Many affordable birthstone pieces use synthetic or simulated stones, and that is not automatically a problem, lab-grown sapphire is chemically identical to mined sapphire. What matters is that the listing says which it is. If a July ruby ring costs $40, it is not a natural ruby, and the metal matters too; check our comparison of solid gold, gold filled, vermeil and gold plated before you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my month have more than one birthstone?

Because the list has been revised repeatedly. Older traditional stones were kept when newer ones were added, so March, June, August, October, November and December all carry several official options. Any of them is legitimate.

Can I wear a birthstone that is not mine?

Yes. There is no tradition that forbids it, and many people wear a partner’s or child’s stone deliberately. Choose by color and durability if the symbolism does not matter to you.

What is the rarest birthstone?

Alexandrite, June’s color-changing stone. Fine natural alexandrite in larger sizes is rarer than diamond and priced accordingly. Most alexandrite sold commercially is lab-created.

What is the most affordable birthstone?

Amethyst, citrine and blue topaz are the three that stay inexpensive even in large, clean stones. All three are hard enough for regular wear.

Which birthstone should I avoid in a ring?

Pearl, opal and turquoise. All three are soft, porous and reactive to chemicals. They are beautiful in earrings and pendants, where nothing knocks them.