What to Engrave on a Custom Pendant: Ideas That Actually Work
The hardest part of ordering a custom pendant is often not the shape or the metal - it is staring at an empty engraving box and drawing a blank. After years of reading what people type in, we have a pretty clear sense of what reads well on a small piece of silver and what does not. Here is our honest list.
The classics, for good reason
- A first name or nickname. The default for a reason. A short name - three to seven letters - sits beautifully on a disc and reads clearly for decades.
- A date. A birthday, an anniversary, a wedding date. We recommend the format DD.MM.YY because it is compact and everyone reads it the right way.
- Initials. One, two or three letters. Monograms never go out of style, and they work for men and women.
The personal, memorable options
- Coordinates. The latitude and longitude of where you met, where you grew up, or where you got engaged. It looks like a quiet string of numbers to anyone else, and it means everything to you. Keep it to one or two decimal places - full coordinates will not fit.
- A short word. Faith, brave, mum, love, zen. A single word carries more weight on a small pendant than a long sentence ever will.
- A pet's name. More common than you would think. People engrave a dog's name and a tiny paw symbol, and wear it for years.
- Roman numerals. A date in Roman numerals looks elegant and uses fewer characters than you would expect.
What about emojis and symbols?
We can engrave simple symbols - a heart, a star, a small cross, a paw print - very cleanly. Colour emoji, though, will not work: engraving is monochrome, and a detailed emoji turns into a blob at this size. If you want a heart, just ask for a heart outline. It looks far better than a converted emoji.
What we gently advise against
A full sentence on a tiny pendant. It sounds lovely in your head, but by the time the letters are small enough to fit, they will wear down within a year or two and become unreadable. A quote belongs on a larger bar or on the back of a piece, not squeezed onto the front of a disc.
We also suggest avoiding sensitive details on the front - a full phone number, a home address - because the pendant will be visible to strangers. If you need to engrave contact information, the back of a dog tag is a better, more private spot.
The character limit exists for your own good
Our limit is ten characters on the front, and we can usually add a short line on the back for free. If what you want is longer than that, we will tell you before we start, not after. There is nothing worse than receiving a pendant where the letters have been shrunk until they look like Morse code.
If you are still stuck, send us what you are thinking and we will tell you honestly whether it will fit and how it will read. That is literally what we are here for.