OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Paint Colour Name Generator
Fictional Paint Colour Names like Cornish Slate, Morning Linen and Drawing Room Blue
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How the Paint Colour Name Generator works
This paint colour name generator gives a fresh list with every click. Generate paint colour names in the conventions paint charts use: Cornish Slate as a place and a material, Morning Linen as a texture and a light, Drawing Room Blue as a room and a colour, Mole's Whisper as a creature's whisper or breath, Harbour Mist No. 214 as a numbered heritage colour, Dead Salmon as an ironic food name, and Hush as a one-word mood. Pick a hue, choose a convention and generate up to a hundred.
Paint colour name generator: how the names are built
A paint colour name is printed under a two-inch square on a chart and read by someone who cannot tell forty greys apart, so its job is to make the square feel like a place, a fabric or a mood, and the conventions have become so recognisable that the names are now quoted as comedy, which is why the Convention select is the main control and the Hue select changes the materials and moods inside it. The place-and-material form, Cornish Slate, Norfolk Flint, Tuscan Ochre, is the heritage brand's default, a county or a region and the stone, clay or plant that gives the colour, and it makes a grey sound like a holiday. The texture-and-light form, Morning Linen, Faded Calico, Dusk Plaster, is the fabric shelf, a time of day or a wearing word and a cloth or a surface, and it is the shape most off-whites take. The room-plus-colour form, Drawing Room Blue, Hallway White, Scullery Green, is the country-house convention, a room in a large house the buyer does not have and the colour it was painted in some notional past. The creature's-whisper form, Mole's Whisper, Elephant's Breath in the famous case, Dove's Sigh, Heron Grey, is the whimsical convention, an animal and something soft it does, and it is the one most often quoted as a joke about paint names. The numbered heritage form, Harbour Mist No. 214, Old White No. 4, Lead Grey 57, is the archive convention, a name and a catalogue number that implies the colour was mixed in 1820 and has been kept since. The ironic food form, Dead Salmon in the famous case, Sulking Mushroom, Faded Porridge, Drowned Pea, is the deliberately unappealing name that a confident brand uses to signal that the colour is serious and the name is not. And the one-word mood, Hush, Shadow, Verdant, Blush, is the modern minimalist range, a single word with no material at all.
The words are counties, materials, fabrics and ordinary English, so a result is a new combination rather than a real chart colour by design, though paint colour names are trademarked by the brands and the heritage conventions are crowded, so search a name before printing a real chart and treat a coincidence as likely. A colour name also has to fit under a swatch and on a tin, so the shapes here are one to four words.
For the brand on the tin, the Business section; for the shade of a nail polish or a lipstick in the same register, the Nail polish name and Lipstick shade name pages; for a colour name from an actual hex value, the Colour name page; for the interiors shop that stocks the range, the Shop name page in the Business section; and for the house it goes on, the Places section.
FAQ
Why do paint colours have such strange names?
Because forty greys on a chart are indistinguishable and the name is the only thing that makes one feel warmer, older or more expensive than the next. A material makes a colour feel real, a place makes it feel rare, a room makes it feel grand, and a joke makes the brand feel confident. The names are marketing and everyone knows it, which is why they are quoted as comedy.
What convention should a paint range use?
One throughout. A heritage range takes the place-and-material and the numbered conventions; a minimalist range takes one-word moods; a whimsical range takes creatures and ironic foods. A chart that mixes Cornish Slate with Hush and Dead Salmon looks like three brands. Pick a convention here and generate the whole range in it.
What does the number mean in a heritage colour name?
Usually nothing beyond the brand's catalogue order, but it implies an archive and a date, and a customer reads No. 214 as a colour that has been mixed for a century. Real heritage brands number their colours in the order they were added; a fictional brand can number them however it likes.
Are paint colour names trademarked?
Yes, by the brands, and the well-known ones are defended. Before printing a real chart, search the trademark register and the big brands' colour lists; the place-and-material and creature conventions are crowded and a coincidence is likely. For a mock-up or a fictional brand, none of that matters.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. The names are counties, materials, fabrics and ordinary English in the conventions charts use, and they belong to no one until a brand registers them; coincidence with a real colour is likely, so search before a real range. For a fictional brand, a swatch mock-up, an interiors post, a design app's demo palette or a story, use them freely.
See also: all Places & Things tools, People, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Culture & Language, Online & Social, Business & Brand.
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