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Birthstone Finder

Use this free birthstone finder to discover the gemstone for any birth month or birth date. Pick a month, or enter a full date, and see the stone, its colour, its meaning, and the traditional and modern alternatives — plus a full table of all twelve months.

All twelve birthstones

How it works

A birthstone is a gemstone assigned to the month you were born. The tradition is old: it grew out of the idea that each month had a stone with special qualities for people born in that month, and over the centuries the lists were written down, traded between cultures, and finally standardized. Today the list most jewelers use is the modern list, set by the American jewelry industry in 1912 and updated a few times since. This finder uses that modern list as its main answer, and shows the traditional stone beside it whenever the two differ, so you can choose the one that suits you.

Using the tool is simple. Pick a birth month from the list, or enter a full birth date and the tool reads the month from it. The result shows four things: the stone's name, its colour, the meaning people have attached to it, and the traditional and modern alternatives. The colour matters because it is often the first thing people notice in jewelry: January's garnet and July's ruby are both deep red but with different tones, while March's aquamarine is pale blue and September's sapphire is deep blue. The meaning is a symbolic tradition — calm for amethyst, courage for aquamarine, love for diamond — not a scientific claim, but it is part of why people choose a stone as a gift.

Five months have more than one stone, and those are the interesting cases. June's modern stone is pearl, but the traditional lists give alexandrite, which changes colour from green in daylight to red in lamplight, and moonstone, with its soft blue glow. October's modern stone is opal, with its shifting rainbow colours, while tourmaline is the traditional alternative and comes in almost every colour. November's modern stone is topaz, usually golden yellow, while citrine is the traditional alternative and is a warm yellow quartz. December's modern stone is turquoise, a sky-blue stone, with zircon and tanzanite as alternatives in some lists. January through May, July, August, and September have a single stone in both lists, so there is nothing to choose between. When a month offers two stones, the choice is yours: pick the colour you like, the stone that fits your budget, or the one whose meaning speaks to you.

Birthstones are also practical. A birthstone pendant, ring, or bracelet is one of the most common personalized gifts, because it works for birthdays, graduations, and new babies alike. If you are buying for someone else, use their birth month, not yours. If you are buying for yourself, remember there is no rule that you must wear only your own stone — many people wear the stone of a partner or a child as a keepsake. The table above gives you the whole year at a glance, so you can compare months before you buy, and the finder gives you the detail for one month at a time.

Worked example

Suppose you were born in July and want to know your birthstone. Select July from the month list and press Find my birthstone. The tool returns:

July → Ruby — deep red, meaning passion, courage, and protection.

Step 1: The month July maps to the ruby in the standard modern list.
Step 2: The traditional list also gives ruby for July, so there is no alternative to choose between.
Step 3: The colour is deep red, and the traditional meaning is passion, courage, and protection.

Compare that with a month that has alternatives. If you select June, the tool returns pearl as the modern stone, with alexandrite and moonstone as traditional alternatives. Try October too: opal is the modern stone, with tourmaline as the traditional alternative. That difference is exactly why the finder shows both lists — for July the answer is one stone, and for June and October you get a choice.

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