Golden Beryl from India

In the trade the stand-alone term "Beryl" is only used for yellow or green/greenish beryls (which are not coloured by chromium and thus do not qualify for Emeralds). All other Beryls are called by their variety name.

Origin of name: the name beryl is derived (via Latin: beryllus, Old French: beryl, and Middle English: beril) from Greek βήρυλλος beryllos which referred to a "precious blue-green color-of-sea-water stone" and originated from Prakrit veruliya (वॆरुलिय) and Pali veḷuriya (वेलुरिय); veḷiru (भेलिरु) or, viḷar (भिलर्), "to become pale"; ultimately from Sanskrit वैडूर्य vaidurya-, which is of Dravidian origin, maybe from the name of [the South Indian city] Belur. The term was later adopted for the mineral beryl more exclusively. The Late Latin word berillus was abbreviated as brill- which produced the Italian word brillare and the French word briller, both meaning "to shine" and the English word brilliance.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl

Synonyms and trade names: Golden Beryl and Heliodor for yellow and greenish yellow stones, Vanadium Beryl for green(ish) stones coloured by vanadium only (and not by chromium).

Can be confused with: almost all other yellow and greenish yellow gemstones e.g. Citrine, Tourmaline, Chrysoberyl, Grossular Garnet, Sapphire etc.

Localities: commercially important sources are Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Ukraine, Namibia and Nigeria