Question Give a Noodle a Noodle

I'm thinking of being evil to an oc Sapphire sibling over either Thanksgiving or Christmas break in an up coming story when my ocs visit relatives in Montana. OC's gonna (try) and help the noodle get used to being male. Just not sure what to call the wiggler, who remains a naga. I can't at the moment think of any masculine sounding gem stones, though I could do an ordinary rock like Flint or Slate. Not sure what I'm thinking power wise.

Agate
Jasper
Pyrite
Malachite
Heliodor
Beryl
Mica
Garnet
Zircon

Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals

I think "Beryl" is actually a girl's name. And Mika also sounds female-ish, unless you are a Mikka Hakkinen fan. Heliodor I could see as either way(*). But Jasper is an actual man's name, and several of the remaining ones tend to the masculine. I could see a Darth Vader-like villain (always in armor and such) being named "Lord Zircon."

(*)Clarification: possibly my view on this is somewhat biased by cultural background -- there's an Brazilian historical figure named Bárbara Heliodora. If not for that, the ending "-or" would suggest a male name for me.

Agate is close enough to Agatha to be a prompt for bullying.
Garnet and Jasper are used as male names, Opal, Jade, Amethyst, and Beryl as female.
Mica has been used as either male or female, Mika fans notwithstanding.
Zircon is rare even in the US, but appears to be a male name.

For the Amethyst fans, Citrine and Topaz appear to be used as female given names.

Rock probably hasn't been as popular since Rock Hudson died.
Coal has been used as a male given name.
Flint (Flint Cole, b. 1730)
Alabaster is more common as a surname-derived middle name, but because English, someone named their boy Alabaster Fludd back in 1624.

Not to be outdone, a few Americans have used Barite as a male, or occasionally female name.

Naming a boy Malachite instead of Malachi looks to be uniquely 21st c. and rare.
Chert is just as rare, but male or female.
Onyx is somewhat more popular, mostly for girls.

Sir Lee wrote: And Mika also sounds female-ish, unless you are a Mikka Hakkinen fan.

If you pronounce it with a long E sound, sure. I've always heard mica pronounced with a long I sound, though, identical to the male name Micah.

Nah, it's not the "long e" or "long i" or whatever for me -- it's ending in an "a". In some cultures, like mine (Brazilian), there's a strong association between name endings in "a" with female, and endings in "o" with male. That's probably how "Andrea" got mutated into a girl's name even though it means "manly" in Greek, and the more male-sounding "André" got coined. That's also probably why the biblical name "Micah" never got popular around here -- too girly sounding for people who actually heard the name and therefore know it's supposed to be male, too obscure for people who only care about fashionable names.

I'm amazed that no one has mentioned Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, or Kunzite yet. I suppose that using one of those would be asking for trouble... also, Jadeite and Zoisite would sound a lot like some English female names, so that's a problem.

(Mind you, in the US version of SM, Zoisite is usually shown as being female, because heteronormativity.)

I'm amazed that no one has brought up the Sailor Moon villains of the week

Schol-R-LEA wrote: I'm amazed that no one has mentioned Jadeite, Nephrite,

a) I was more interested in words that have been actually used as names.
b) I did include Jade.

Jadeite is lumped in with true jade, but is really a different stone.

When I read Mica, I couldn't help thinking of the show The Rifleman, as the marshal on it was Mica. Pyrite is also tempting, as I was thinking a golden naga would be cool looking. Hmmm need to go reread the scene where Sapp explains her manifestation.

Cryptic wrote: Jadeite is lumped in with true jade, but is really a different stone.

Yes. You're thinking of nephrite, which I also quoted from Schol-R-LEA's post. "Jade" is commonly used as a name in English, "jadeite" and "nephrite" aren't. (I find three US birth records for "Jadeite", and two for "Nephrite". Three if you count the mis-spelled "Nefertiti" from Houston)

If their color doesn't change, it's easier to pick a name, then.

Is Opal's color, White? Yes, "The pearly white one"

Ruby and Emerald's are obvious.

We could name one "Watermelon" and see how much hate mail we get (All clicks are good clicks?) before someone realizes we're talking about tourmaline.

null0trooper wrote: We could name one "Watermelon" and see how much hate mail we get (All clicks are good clicks?) before someone realizes we're talking about tourmaline.

Reference Triggered!