# Standard list of color names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980 "2003-10-01T21:04:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/1 "2003-10-01T21:04:23Z")
We all know red, blue, green, etc. Then there are a whole bunch of in-between names like: chartreuse, indigo, aquamarine, magenta, etc. Then a whole 'nother class of names, primarily made up by paint manufacturers; like “sandlot”, “steel mist blue”, etc. Is there a commonly accepted color list for all the “in between” colors? ---
**Author:** ![dinoboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dinoboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinoboy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/2 "2003-10-01T21:36:07Z")
Sorry this is not a direct answer, but many color names are copyrighted by the companies… That would lead me to suspect that many color names are not universally accepted. Short HJ: And now that you bring up color names, I have a gripe: the word mauve is correctly pronounced “môv” (really, look it up); I know, it’s a trivial matter, but I feel better for saying it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/3 "2003-10-01T23:20:52Z")
Well, there’s the [html colour list](http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colornames.asp) (two pages after [here](http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp)). It’s about as “standard” as you’re gonna find online. You probably want an artsy person though. Or a painter. Re: **dinoboy** - From the [Bartleby.com](http://Bartleby.com) pronunciation guide: ô = c **augh** t, p **a** w. Yeah. I’ll stick to “mow-v” thanks. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ronbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@ronbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ronbo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/4 "2003-10-02T04:04:06Z")
I recently read (sorry, no cite) that most of the worlds languages have words for the [poor memory alert] ten standard colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown, Black, White and Pink. The only other “standards” might be [naturally occuring colors](http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page23.html). Such as: Indian,Cobalt, Cerulean, etc Blue. Alizarian,Cadmium, Cobalt, etc Green. And so on. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/5 "2003-10-02T07:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ronbo \* > I recently read (sorry, no cite) that most of the worlds languages have words for the [poor memory alert] ten standard colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown, Black, White and Pink. You’re dimly remembering the **eleven** basic color words which some, but not all, languages have. The color that you’re missing is **grey**. Cecil gives a summary of the idea in this column: [Could early man only see three colors?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_168b.html) As far as the OP goes, almost certainly not. In fact these secondary color words don’t even completely fill in all the in-between slots. For instance, I can’t think of any single word names for light green and light blue. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/6 "2003-10-02T11:44:29Z")
If you’re on a Linux system have a look at /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt, which has a list of a whole bunch of colours and their names. ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/7 "2003-10-02T13:01:47Z")
The industry standard for color specification is the Pantone colors, which are numbered (with a few exceptions). There are several other systems for specifying colors – most of these use numbered colors also. The color names used by paint companies are there so people can relate the name of the color – it’s better to say that your bedroom is painted “steel mist blue” than to say it’s Pantone 314 M. In Adobe Photoshop, the default colors are named, but the names are not all that descriptive, like “Pastel Cyan” and “Pure Pea Green”. dtilque: Single words for light blue include “azure” and “cerulean”, which are both words for the color of the sky. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/8 "2003-10-02T17:14:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Roches \* > dtilque: Single words for light blue include “azure” and “cerulean”, which are both words for the color of the sky. Yeah, but when was the last time you heard someone use “azure” or “cerulean” in a conversation? The other thing about these kinds of words is that there’s no general agreement on exactly what color they represent. I mean, you could probably find a square named azure in most or all of the paint manufacturers’ palettes, but it will be a different shade of light blue in each case. That’ll be true for most secondary color names, whether lavender, salmon or burnt umber. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/9 "2003-10-02T17:30:43Z")
“Mauve” rhymes with “grove.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/10 "2003-10-02T20:21:09Z")
Back when I was in fashion advertising (yes, I actually was) I asked what I thought was an innocent question: “what exactly is ‘taupe’?” This led the art directors on a merry chase as they searched through their markers to show me what color taupe was. naturally, every taupe marker drew a slightly different shade. It mattered little to me, because I would have described them all as “sort of tan.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/11 "2003-10-02T20:45:54Z")
I wish I could find the link, but I saw a web page once wherein the author had devised a diverse pallete of colours that could all be easily distinguished and all had easy and logical names (like ‘dark pure green’ etc) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/12 "2003-10-02T21:05:01Z")
[The Pantone color table](http://www.thesignfactory.com/pantone.html) lists 907 colors. It is supposedly "the worldwide standard for the graphic arts industry. [Thanks to Roches for bringing it to my attention in another thread on color.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214771) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/13 "2003-10-02T21:06:40Z")
Damn, I meant to post the past thing in a different thread on color. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/14 "2003-10-02T21:10:59Z")
[Robert Ridgeway](http://www.colorsystem.com/projekte/engl/30ride.htm), an ornithologist, developed a color system for specifying colors in birds and other organisms that is still used today. ---
**Author:** ![Boldface\_Type](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@Boldface\_Type](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boldface_Type)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/15 "2003-10-02T21:34:33Z")
As well as the systems mentioned so far, there is also the ISCC-NBS naming system, which is a ‘systematic’ way of assigning names to colours. There’s a paper which covers this and a bit more [here](http://www.research.ibm.com/people/a/aleksand/pdf/icip2002-1.pdf). ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/16 "2003-10-03T15:41:02Z")
Taupe. Taupe. The color of rope! ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/17 "2003-10-03T23:51:38Z")
So, um. . .to answer the question, no, there’s no one standard list. There are lots of lists, none of which match each other. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/18 "2003-10-03T23:55:15Z")
Primary: red, green, blue Secondary: yellow, cyan, magenta More than that: you have too much free time. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/standard-list-of-color-names/204980/19 "2003-10-03T23:56:39Z")
Pantone (somebody already mentioned it) has to be the closest you’ll get to a universal colour swatch, but unlike other things for which standards are developed (like DVD encoding or vehicle emission levels) - pretty much _anyone_ can mix colours and create their own pallete, so they did.