Color Name Generator

How do artists and designers come up with new names for colors?

When it comes to naming colors, artists and designers have a lot of options to choose from. And with new colors being created all the time, there's always a need for new color names. So where do they come up with all of these names?

There are a few different ways that artists and designers can come up with new color names. One way is to simply describe the color in detail. This can be helpful when trying to communicate the exact shade of a color to someone else. Another way is to come up with a more creative name that evokes certain feelings or emotions. And sometimes, colors are named after things that they resemble, like fruits or flowers.

Ultimately, there's no right or wrong way to name a color. It's all about whatever works best for the artist or designer, and what will help others understand and remember the color better.

What are some typical names used for new colors?

The world of color is vast and ever-changing, with new shades being created all the time. But what do these new colors get called?

There are no set rules for naming new colors, but there are some trends that can be observed. Often, new colors are named after the objects or natural phenomena that they resemble - think of shades like "lava" or "ocean blue". Sometimes, manufacturers will use made-up names that they feel evoke a certain feeling or image, like "moody mauve" or "sunset orange". And sometimes, a simple string of numbers and letters is used to identify a shade, like Pantone's "Color of the Year" for 2020, which is simply called "Classic Blue".

A history of colors

Since the beginning of time, color has been a part of human history. People have used a wide range of materials to express themselves and make pigments for art for centuries. The concept of the color wheel and its current significance in art and color theory did not emerge until the 18th century. As observers began to distinguish between the light absorbed and reflected by particular surfaces, colors first appeared. Light waves are transformed into electromagnetic radiation during this process, which the human eye processes and interprets as color. Although the human eye is capable of recognizing an infinite range of hues, the earliest pigments were restricted to a few naturally occurring materials like charcoal, yellow ochre, and red ochre. Color schemes were developed independently by Greek, Chinese, Egyptian, and other ancient civilizations. Pigments were used for religious and medicinal purposes, as well as decoration by Egyptians. They used blue, a color that was very important to them, to make lapis lazuli, a valuable stone. From charcoal's black to the deep blues of the sky, the Greek and Roman cultures created their own palette. The term "six-part color wheel" and its six corresponding hues—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple—were first described in Isaac Newton's 1704 work Pringtoriae. The arrangement of the colors in the spectrum, which was like a rainbow in the 17th century, served as the foundation for this color wheel. This color wheel changed how people thought about colors and led to many new applications, like the 18th-century cloth dyes. The French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey was the one who discovered the subtractive color process in 1758. Cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) were the three primary colors used in this process. In the latter half of the 19th century, color photography led to the commercialization of this method and its widespread adoption. Colors are now used to convey meaning and emotion. Digital technology and new innovations have made it easier than ever to find colors. A nearly infinite color palette can be created using color software by producing a variety of hues and colors. Only a few hues have remained consistently relevant throughout history, despite the visual world's infinite color spectrum. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, and they cannot be combined with other colors. These colors, which were the first colors on the spectrum, show how colors have been used to express emotion, identity, and meaning over time.

5 questions to help you come up with color names

1. What type of object is the color being used for?
2. What is the personality of the color being used?
3. What emotion does the color evoke?
4. What is the season when the color is being used?
5. What type of environment does the color depict?

Can I use the random color names that this tool creates?

Yes you can. The Story Shack claims no copyright on any of these names, but it is of course possible that some of the values this name generator provides are already owned by anyone else, so please make sure to always do your due diligence.

How many ideas can I generate with this Color Name Generator?

The Color Name Generator can generate thousands of ideas for your project, so feel free to keep clicking and at the end use the handy copy feature to export your color names to a text editor of your choice. Enjoy!

What are good color names?

There's thousands of random color names in this generator. Here are some samples to start:

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