Your name is not just letters. It is the first gift your parents gave you. It carries the language they grew up speaking, the culture they came from, the people who came before them. When a name is written correctly, in its authentic script with all its accents and characters intact, it connects you to all of that. When it is simplified, romanized, or stripped of what makes it yours, something real is lost.
This is why we built Gemiria. And this is what we believe about names.
What a Name Actually Is
Psychologists have studied the relationship between names and identity for decades. Psychology Today describes a name as a person's "personal face to the world", something imbued with complex meanings about identity and how others perceive us. For people who grew up between cultures, names carry even more weight. They are the point where heritage meets the present. Where the family you came from meets the world you live in now.
A name is the one thing that was chosen for you before anyone knew anything about you. It preceded your personality, your choices, your achievements. It arrived before everything else. And it stays.
Which is why it matters so much when it is written wrong.
The Necklace That Arrived as "Julia"
In 2025, I wanted to buy a name necklace for my mother. Her name is Júlia. Not Julia. Júlia, with the Hungarian accent on the u that connects her name to her language, her heritage, her family.
I searched everywhere. Every personalized jewelry store offered the same thing: generic Latin characters, no accents, no special letters, no authentic scripts. I ordered anyway, hoping someone would get it right.
The necklace arrived reading "Julia."
Not Júlia. Julia. The accent deleted. The thing that makes her name hers, gone. As if it did not matter. As if close enough was good enough.
It was not good enough. It has never been good enough. And I knew that millions of people had received the same quiet disappointment, millions of times, from every jewelry brand that had decided their name was too complicated to get right.
At Gemiria, her necklace arrives as Júlia, as it should.
And the Names That Never Even Got an Alphabet
My mother lost one accent. For a great many people, the loss is bigger than that. A woman who grew up writing her name as Светлана is handed "Svetlana." A girl named مريم at home becomes "Maryam" on everything she owns. A grandmother who signs שרה is offered "Sarah" and told it is the same thing.
It is not one necklace that arrives wrong. It is a lifetime of being told a name needs to be translated before it is acceptable.
A deleted accent and an erased alphabet are the same problem at different sizes, and they are the daily reality for hundreds of millions of people whose names exist in scripts the jewelry industry has decided are too difficult to support.
The Names That Have Always Been Simplified
Think about who this affects.
Arabic families across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia whose names in authentic Arabic script have never appeared on personalized jewelry. Their names romanized, simplified, written in a direction that feels backwards to them.
Hebrew communities whose names carry thousands of years of meaning, and who are too often handed a Latin spelling instead of the letters their family has always used.
Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian speakers whose Cyrillic alphabet, a writing system used by over 250 million people, is treated as an edge case not worth supporting.
Japanese speakers and anime fans who want their name in Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji, not in a romanized phonetic approximation that no Japanese reader would recognize as their name.
K-pop fans who want their idol's name in the script it actually appears in. Not "Lisa", but 리사.
And everyone with a European name that contains an accent. François, not Francois. Zoë, not Zoe. Søren, not Soren. Júlia, not Julia. Small marks that carry enormous meaning.
What "Almost Right" Actually Costs
When a name is simplified to fit a system that was not built for it, the damage is subtle but real. It says: your name is acceptable in this version. The version that is easier for us. The version that does not require us to expand what we support.
It says close enough.
And for jewelry, of all things, close enough is a particular kind of failure. Jewelry is the category that promises the most personal. It is the gift people give at the moments that matter most. A birth, a graduation, a marriage, a milestone. When that gift arrives with the name wrong, the personalization hollow, it does not just disappoint. It communicates something about how much you were considered.
We built Gemiria because every person whose name has been simplified deserves a place where the answer is not close enough. It is exactly right.
What Gemiria Does Differently
Gemiria was built from the beginning to support names as they actually exist, not as they are most convenient to produce.
Six authentic writing systems. Not romanized versions. Not decorative approximations. The real scripts, shown in the live preview exactly as they will be made.
- Korean Hangul: Real syllable blocks. 지민, not Jimin. 현진, not Hyunjin.
- Arabic: Authentic connected script, right to left. سارة, not Sara.
- Hebrew: The real Hebrew alphabet, right to left, with its final letter forms. שרה, not Sarah transliterated.
- Cyrillic: Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian. Светлана, not Svetlana.
- Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, all three available on every piece.
- Latin with full diacritics: François, Zoë, Søren, Júlia. Every accent, every character.
On our family and multiple name pieces, each name can even be in a different alphabet, so a family that lives between two languages can wear both on one piece.
Want to see your own name first? Our guides walk through what names look like in Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, and Cyrillic script.
Every piece uses a live preview. You type the name in English, the system generates the correct transliteration in your chosen script, displayed in your chosen finish. We make it exactly as the preview shows it, so what you approve is what you get.
Because your name deserves to be seen exactly as it will be made, not approximated by an algorithm and hoped for.
Who This Is For
Gemiria was launched with K-pop fans who wanted their bias's name in real Korean Hangul. But it is for everyone whose name has been simplified.
It is for the Arabic family who wants their daughter's name on a necklace for Eid, written the way it appears in their home, not the way it appears to people who have never learned Arabic.
It is for the Jewish mother who wants a Bat Mitzvah gift with her daughter's Hebrew name, in real Hebrew letters, not a generic approximation.
It is for the Ukrainian woman who moved abroad and has never seen her name in Cyrillic on a piece of jewelry, because no one thought it was worth supporting.
It is for the person who just loves Japanese aesthetics and wants 愛 (love) or 夢 (dream) on a ring, not a font that vaguely resembles Japanese characters.
And it is for anyone with an accent in their name who has spent their life receiving jewelry, forms, coffee cups, and packages with a version of their name that is close but not quite theirs.
The Piece and What It Carries
Every plated Gemiria piece is made on a stainless steel base, not brass, with a nickel free finish, so it is waterproof, durable and hypoallergenic, and backed by a 10 year warranty. It arrives in a signature burgundy gift box. Made for you in 7 to 10 days, then delivered within 1 to 2 weeks worldwide, sometimes longer for remote areas, with free worldwide shipping on every order.
For something more precious, most pieces also come in 18K Gold Vermeil: solid 925 sterling silver under real 18K gold. It asks a little more care and comes off before swimming.
But the material is almost beside the point. The point is the name on it. The point is that it is correct. That the accent is there. That the script is real. That whoever receives it sees their name the way it was always meant to look.
That is the piece. That is what it carries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a name mean to a person's identity?
A name is one of the most fundamental parts of personal identity. It is the first thing others use to address you and the word most closely associated with your sense of self. For people with heritage connections to non-Latin scripts, a name also carries the weight of language, culture, and belonging. When a name is written in its authentic script, it affirms that identity. When it is simplified or romanized, something real is lost.
Why does the correct spelling of a name matter so much?
Names are not interchangeable with their approximations. Júlia and Julia are different. שרה and "Sarah transliterated" are different. 지민 and "Jimin" are different. Each contains information, cultural meaning, and identity that the simplified version does not. For personalized jewelry specifically, receiving a name written incorrectly turns a personal gift into a reminder that the system could not quite accommodate who you are.
What is the story behind Gemiria?
Gemiria was founded in Budapest, Hungary in 2026. Co-founder Dániel Völgyi ordered a name necklace for his mother Júlia and it arrived reading "Julia," her Hungarian accent deleted. Gemiria was built so that no one, whether their name is missing an accent or an entire alphabet, has to accept close enough for their own name. Read the full story here.
What scripts does Gemiria support?
Gemiria supports six authentic writing systems: Korean Hangul, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian), Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji), and Latin with full diacritical marks. Every Gemiria piece is made exactly as it appears in the live preview, so what you see is exactly what you get.
What types of jewelry does Gemiria make?
Gemiria makes custom name necklaces, bracelets, rings, anklets, drop earrings, and ear climber earrings. All are available in 18K gold plating, Rhodium Silver and 18K rose gold plating on a stainless steel base, not brass, with a nickel free finish, which is waterproof, durable and hypoallergenic. For precious metal, there is 18K Gold Vermeil, solid sterling silver under 18K gold, nickel free through and through, which comes off before swimming. Browse the full custom name jewelry collection to see all options.
Why does Gemiria use stainless steel instead of silver or gold?
Sterling silver tarnishes with daily wear and contact with water and sweat. Traditional gold plating over brass wears down over time. A stainless steel base with 18K PVD coating or rhodium plating gives the look and feel of precious metal with none of the maintenance: waterproof, durable, hypoallergenic and tarnish resistant. This is jewelry meant to be worn every day, not kept in a drawer. For those who want precious metal, 18K Gold Vermeil is available on most pieces.
Dániel Völgyi is the co-founder and CEO of Gemiria, a custom name jewelry brand built on the belief that every name deserves to be written exactly as it should be. His mother's name is Júlia. The necklace arrived as "Julia." That was the beginning of Gemiria.