Amber

Where the name comes from

• English, from Arabic
  Amber, the golden fossil resin used as a gem. Further back, the word meant ambergris, a sweet-smelling substance made by sperm whales and used in perfume.
  Arabic 'anbar, meaning ambergris
  Amber is a word name. It comes from the ordinary English word "amber." English got the word through French and Medieval Latin, and those languages took it from Arabic 'anbar, which meant ambergris. Ambergris reached Western Europe around the time of the Crusades. In Europe, the same word was then used for the golden fossil resin found along the Baltic Sea. That has become its main meaning. No one knows for sure why the two substances share a name. One idea is that both washed up on beaches. Another is that the resin's name is a separate word whose origin is unknown. English has used "amber" as a color word since 1735.

Amber across traditions

• Jewish and Christian scripture in English. Older English translations of the Hebrew Bible use "amber" for the Hebrew word chashmal. That word names a shining metal, not the gem.
• Greek and Roman. The Romans called Baltic amber electrum. Amber builds up static electricity when it is rubbed. That is why the word "electric" comes from the Greek and Latin words for amber.
• Italian. Ambra, the Italian form, was a woman's personal name in the late Middle Ages. Children were sometimes named after their mother, and that is how the Italian surname D'Ambra came about.
• American popularity. Amber was the 13th most popular name for US girls born in the 1980s. It is also one of the 100 most common girls' names in the United States from 1926 to 2025.
• Literature. Amber St. Clare is the heroine of Kathleen Winsor's 1944 bestselling historical novel, Forever Amber.

Forms in other languages

Ámbar, Ambra, Ambre, Amberly

Amber in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.