Emerald is an English gem name that goes back through Old French to the Greek smaragdos and means "emerald", the deep green stone that is the birthstone of May. It joins Ruby, Pearl and Jade in the small family of jewel names that American parents have revived. Emerald ranked number 966 in 2000, slipped out of the top 1000 for a while and has been back since 2019; it reached number 708 in 2024 and ranks number 741 in 2025.