Custom Name Necklace in Sterling Silver

What it means

A name is the first thing anyone gives you, and the one you keep longest.

This one is cut from a single piece of sterling silver, following the curve of real handwriting. The letters stay joined the way they would if you wrote them yourself, so it reads like a signature instead of a row of beads. It's small. It sits in the hollow of the collarbone and you stop noticing it's there, which is usually the moment a piece of jewelry becomes yours.

Hardly anyone orders their own name. It's a daughter's. A mother's. A name someone only got to say out loud for a little while.

Who it's for

Get this when you want the gift to be unmistakably for one person and nobody else.

It works for a graduation, a first job, a birthday that lands in a hard year. New mothers wear the baby's name. Grandmothers wear all of them at once. One went to a sister who had just moved across the country, so she'd have something of home at her throat.

And if you're worried she already owns one — she almost certainly doesn't. A name necklace doesn't exist until somebody has it made for a particular person.

Size and fit

One size. Nothing to guess at.

The chain adjusts between 16 and 18 inches. At its shortest it sits at the base of the throat; at its longest, just below the collarbone. That fits almost everyone from about twelve years old up, so you don't have to ask for a measurement and give away the surprise.

The pendant grows a little with longer names. Four letters runs about an inch across, a longer name closer to an inch and a half. Either way it stays delicate.

About engraving

Type the name the way you want it to read. Capitals, lowercase, the nickname only the two of you use. The preview above is the script we cut, so the shape of the letters is what shows up at the door.

One honest thing: what arrives is a little thicker than the preview. Silver that fine would snap, so the workshop broadens every stroke enough for the metal to hold. Same letterforms, slightly heavier lines in your hand than on your screen.

Up to 10 characters — letters, spaces, apostrophes, hyphens and periods, so O'Brien and Anne-Marie are both fine. We can't cut numbers, emoji, or non-Latin characters in this script.

We cut each one after you order, and that means two things. It takes longer than something off a shelf, and we can't take it back once it's cut, because there's nobody else it could go to. Read the spelling over once before you order. If you'd rather we double-check it with you first, say so in the note at checkout and we will.

Materials and care

Solid 925 sterling silver, rhodium plated. The plating is what keeps it bright and slows the tarnish down. Nickel free.

Silver goes darker over time. That's the metal doing what silver does, not a flaw. A soft cloth brings it back in under a minute. What actually hurts it is chlorine, perfume sprayed straight onto it, and sitting in a damp bathroom — so take it off before the pool or the shower, and keep it in the pouch it came in.

It'll outlast the occasion you bought it for. That's the whole idea.