Opal

Hold a raw opal to the light and the color moves — red to green to copper without ever committing. The name carries that same quality, shifting in context, never quite pinned. It comes from the Sanskrit upala, meaning precious stone, a word that traveled through Latin into the English jewel-naming tradition of the late Victorian era, arriving alongside Pearl and Ruby in the nurseries of mothers who believed a gem name was a kind of small inheritance.

Opal peaked in the American charts in the 1910s and then receded for nearly a century, resting while the world moved through a succession of Patricias and Jennifers. It is back now, at rank 450, carried on the wave of antique revival that has also restored Hazel and Iris and Cora to nursery shelves. No single celebrity has commandeered it; its return is quieter than that, a grassroots reclamation by parents who want something that sounds old without sounding tired.

Two syllables, the first open and round, the second clipped — OH-pal — a little like saying the word without quite closing your mouth at the end. It pairs crisply with short middles from the similar-name range: Opal Demi, Opal Kira, Opal Sarai. The girl who gets this name tends to be the one who carries a book in her coat pocket, who notices the October light before anyone else mentions it, and who takes her time deciding anything.