Several people have asked me, “What’s a carnelian? How did you choose the name?” So here’s the story.
The carnelian is one of my favourite gemstones. The others are tiger’s eye, malachite, and moss agate, but none of those seemed quite right.
I was trying to think of a name and “Carnelian” arrived in the middle of the night and just felt like a good fit. I had a carnelian ring many years ago that a friend found in their boat, which was called Circe.
According to the International Gem Society, carnelian is associated with health, good luck, royalty, and lions, especially in Arab cultures. People often carved or engraved carnelian into talismans. The name is also a bit of a nod to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The stone was originally called cornelian because of its resemblance to dogwood or cornel berries. Although this variety of dogwood does not grow wild in Ontario, the winter woods are brightened by the red stems of several species of dogwood, and it comes into flower in May.
I also like the connotations of polishing a pebble until it becomes a gemstone or a jewel, which seemed like a great way to describe the process of crafting a website.
Pebbles, gemstones, and jewels
Pebbles are lovely in their own right, of course. Did you know that penguins bring pebbles to each other as gifts? I learned this from reading about how neurodivergent people offer others nuggets of fascinating information, a love language which is known as pebbling.
You might be wondering about the difference between a gemstone and a jewel. There’s actually no difference: the two terms are synonymous. But I tend to think of gemstones as the semi-precious stones (turquoise, haematite, chrysocolla, tiger’s eye, quartz, tourmaline, pyrite, sodalite, carnelian, malachite, jasper, amethyst, agate, and lapis lazuli), and jewels as the precious stones (emerald, ruby, sapphire and diamond).
Ready to shine?
If you would like your website polished to the brilliance of a gemstone, perhaps by improving its accessibility, user experience, search engine optimization, or with any of our other services, do get in touch.
Leave a Reply