What’s In A Name? Part 1

By the Green Queen

As the primary person to name new items for Diamond Nexus, I get to have a little fun with those names now and then.  I can’t claim credit for every name, (anything that references an ’80s pop song was before my time here,) and some names are assigned in a bit of a rush without much meaning behind them.  But other names…well, there’s a story there.

Welcome to Part 1 of the continuing series: “What’s In A Name?”  Here, you’ll get to learn about the secret inspiration behind the names of some of our jewelry, from affordable engagement rings to earrings and pendants.

You may be asking yourself, “What’s so hard about naming a piece of jewelry?  There are plenty of names in the world to pick from.  Like…um…”  The thing is that after about a dozen or so new names, your brain starts to feel a little confuzzled about where to find the next one.  There are nearly 700 named items on the Diamond Nexus website, not including discontinued pieces.  (Also not including matching bands, loose stones, or other things that don’t have unique names.)  Furthermore, there’s a bit of a trick to finding a name that feels “right” for a particular piece.  I mean, you wouldn’t use the name “Rambo” for a petite engagement ring.  So sometimes, I do a bit of creative digging and free-association to find the right moniker.  This both amuses and confuses my coworkers.

So first up is the Briar Rose ring.

Briar Rose Engagement Ring

At the time when this ring came out, Diamond Nexus had a rather limited selection of the hot new trend of twisted band rings.  In fact, one of the very few such rings we had was the Aurora.  The new ring not only had a twisted style band like the Aurora, but was absolutely encrusted with accent stones…also like the Aurora.  Plus, it had a bit of a fairytale tangled-vine look to it.  I remembered the story of Sleeping Beauty in which the princess’ name was “Aurora” but the good fairies called her “Briar Rose” during her years in hiding.  Thus, the new ring was called “Briar Rose” as a complement to the “Aurora.”

Next up is the Bistro ring 

Bistro Engagement Ring

Again, free-association is fun.  With this popular ring, I found myself looking at it and wondering how I could make special note of its unusual feature: the chocolate colored accents.  So I thought to myself: “Chocolate stones.  They’re Baguette cut.  Chocolate baguettes.  Hm.  Sounds like something you’d get in a French café.  Or a BISTRO!”

Now I’m hungry.

But before I go find some chocolate-dipped pastry…the Secret Love ring.

Secret Love Engagement Ring

 Remember the 2004 film version of Phantom of the Opera with Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, and Patrick Wilson?  Remember the part near the end where the Phantom gives Christine an engagement ring and sort of…threatens to murder her lover if she doesn’t agree to marry him?  (Come on, Phantom.  This is not a foundation for a healthy marriage.)  But she breaks through that bad boy’s emo shell of violence and rage with an act of kindness and compassion, which takes him completely by surprise and inspires him to let the lovers go.  After initially running away, Christine returns for one brief moment to give back the engagement ring before departing with her beloved Raoul.

But who did Christine REALLY love?

There’s all kinds of debate about this aspect of the story.  Was Christine really in love with the Phantom, who represented sensuality and dark desires?  Did she choose Raoul in the end because he represented daylight and freedom, and she felt imprisoned by the Phantom’s darkness?  Would things have turned out differently if the Phantom hadn’t tried so hard to control her and everyone around her?  Everyone’s interpretation is different, but the film’s epilogue clearly showed an interpretation in which the Phantom’s love for Christine never died, even though he kept himself hidden away for the rest of their lives.  Alone and forgotten, he still held onto his secret love.

So yeah.  Long story short, the “Secret Love” ring looks kinda like the ring from the movie.