Birthstones by month
Ask "what is April's birthstone" and most sites give you one confident word. There isn't one word. There are at least four different lists in active use — a pre-1912 historical record that varied by source and region, a 1912 US trade standard, a UK list revised in 2013, and the current US trade list, extended as recently as 2016. They agree on some months and disagree on others. This page shows all four, for all twelve months, so you can see exactly where the agreement is real and where it isn't.
None of these lists is "the" birthstone tradition. Each is a dated, attributable standard set by a specific trade body — not folklore handed down unchanged.
A short standardisation timeline
Before the 20th century, birthstone lists varied by source, region, and era — there was no single authority. In 1912 the National Association of Jewelers (US) published the first widely-adopted standard list, revised in 1952. The UK's National Association of Goldsmiths published its own, different list in 1937, most recently revised in 2013. The current US trade list, maintained by Jewelers of America and the AGTA, has itself been extended within living memory — tanzanite was added in 2002, spinel in 2016. "Standardised" doesn't mean old.
The comparison matrix
Each cell lists the stone(s) that system names for that month, in the order the source gives them. A month cell showing the same stone across all four columns means genuine agreement; a month with different stones in different columns is marked in its own page.
Source-by-source context for each column:
- Historical (15th–20th century): This list predates any single standardising body and varied by source, region, and era — it is presented as historical record, not a fixed tradition.
- US 1912: This is a 20th-century commercial standard set by the US jewelry trade in 1912 (later revised in 1952), not an ancient tradition.
- UK 2013: This list was first published by the UK trade body in 1937 and revised in 2013 — a modern commercial standard, not a historical inheritance.
- US current: This is the current US trade list, extended as recently as 2002 (tanzanite) and 2016 (spinel) — an evolving commercial standard, not a fixed tradition.
Born under a sign, not a month?
The tables above are all keyed to calendar month. There is a separate, older tradition of assigning stones by zodiac sign instead — and the two zodiac systems in use today disagree with each other on every sign. See zodiac birthstones for that comparison, including how the traditional zodiac list is actually derived from the historical monthly table above.
Sources
Retrieved August 10, 2026.