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Colourful Theme Naming
(aka: Colorful Theme Naming)

Go To
A colorful list of suspects.
"We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of art and all forms of self-expression. And as you are all well aware, that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: color. It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression but neither would the generations to come, and it was a trend that is held to this very day."
— Professor Ozpin, RWBY, "Field Trip"

One form of Theme Naming is to name characters after colors. The colors may reflect their personalities (for example, red being violent and white being innocent), but there is often no correlation at all.

A popular trait for groups of Color-Coded Characters, particularly Sentai teams.

A Sub-Trope of Scientific and Technological Theme Naming, as colors are simply specific ranges of wavelengths of light, or combinations thereof. See also Color Character, when a character incorporates the name of a color into the name of of a superhero or masked hero. Super-Trope to Color Animal Codename, which is basically this trope combined with Animal Theme Naming.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Action Heroine Cheer Fruits, a series that Homages Super Sentai, naturally makes use of this. The cast includes Ann Akagi (red), Mikan Kise (yellow), Mana Midorikawa (green), Genki and Yuki Aoyama (blue), Hatsuri Momoi (pink), Roko Kuroki (black) and Kanon Shimura (purple). Naturally, when the girls put on a Tokusatsu stage show, they all wear the appropriate colored costume. The group's leader Misaki Shirogane is the Odd Name Out since the other girls just blatantly have the kanji for their respective colors in their names while her name uses homophonesnote "shiro" can mean white while "shirogane" can mean either silver or platinum, but the kanji used mean "roots of the castle"; she still gets in on it by playing a character named "Platinum" who wears a white costume.
  • The characters of Amatsuki are named after traditional Japanese colours, which are often reflected in their designs, e.g. 'kon' is a dark blue colour, and the character Kon has blue eyes and favours blue clothes.
  • The Weston Academy Prefects in Black Butler - Edgar Redmond, Laurence Bluer, Gregory Violet, and Herman Greenhill.
  • Bleach:
    • Byakuya was designed to be a contrast to Ichigo. Ichigo's family name is "Kurosaki" which means "Black Promontory" and Byakuya's name is centred around the meaning for "white". His family name "Kuchiki" also means "rotting wood". During their final battle, Ichigo's power is jet black and Byakuya's power is pure white. They're fighting on top of a dark promontory surrounded by a forest of white, dead trees.
    • The Kuchiki family is all centred around colour naming. Ginrei's name means "silver", Byakuya's name means "white" and Byakuya's deceased father was called Soujun, a name meaning "Green/blue".
    • Lampshaded in-universe: Ukitake keeps buying Hitsugaya gifts which annoys the younger captain. When Hitsugaya finally managed to get Ukitake to explain why, Ukitake pointed out that they both have white hair, and that his name is Juushirou and Hitsugaya's name is Toushirou making them both Shirou-chan.note "Shirou" means "white" so "Shirou-chan" would be the equivalent of calling someone "Snowy" or "Whitey" Hitsugaya isn't impressed.
    • A reader commented in Klub Outside that the final bosses Ichigo faced in each arc (since the second arc) have colors in their names. As mentioned above Byakuya from the Soul Society arc has "white" in his name. Aizen, the final boss spanning over the entire Arrancar arc, has "indigo" in his name. Ginjou from the Fullbringer arc (aka Lost Agent arc) has "silver" in his name. The reader asked Kubo if he planned the same for Yhwach, with Kubo confirming that he planned Yhwach to be named "Yhwach Beltz", with "Beltz meaning "black" in Basque. In the story, Ichibei actually changes Yhwach's name to "Black Ant" at some point.
  • Numerous characters have color-coded names in Brigadoon: Marin and Melan. Notably, the Gun-swordsmen's last names refer to their color. Thus, Melan is "Melan Blue."
  • Case Closed: The most notable example is Shuichi Akai. "Akai" means "red" and many chapters and cases he appears have "red" or "scarlet" in the title. Overall, his name is a Shout-Out to both Char Aznable himself from Mobile Suit Gundam, who is nicknamed "Red Comet" due to his red Zaku, and to Char's seiyuu Shūichi Ikeda. Shuichi Akai eventually becomes The Danza.
  • Several major characters in Code Geass have the word 'red' in their names. Lelouch Lamperouge's surname is French for 'red lamp'. Suzaku Kururugi's first name is the same as that of a mythical scarlet bird. Kallen's Japanese surname, Kouzuki, is written with the kanji for 'crimson moon'.
  • In Darker than Black, those who work for the Syndicate have color-themed code names, mostly in Chinese. There's Hei (black), Yin (silver), Bai (white), Huang (yellow), and Amber (obvious), to name a few.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The Red Ribbon Army in the original Dragon Ball has such soldiers as: General Brown, Colonel Silver, General White, Sergeant Major Murasaki (purple), General Blue, Colonel Violet, General Copper, Adjutant Black, and Commander Red. Even Tao Pai Pai fits the pattern, since his name means "peach-white-white".
    • Androids 17 and 18 introduced in Dragon Ball Z (created by former Red Ribbon scientist Dr. Gero) also fit in, as their real names are Lapis and Lazuli (named after the deep blue gem), though this wasn't revealed until an interview decades after the manga finished.
  • The Cthuwulf in the Iczer series. Named characters are Cobalt, Sepia, Sir Violet, Sister Grey, and Commander Magenta (from the Golden Warrior Iczer-One manga).
  • Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!: the Kira Deco 5 are a Sentai team that have colors both in their civillian names and code names; Pink Ohmiya (Shiny Pink), Retsu Akagi (Burning Red), Blue Knight Ozaki (Blue Knight Blue), Midori Akagi (Smart Green) and Kiichi Furano (Slow Life Yellow).
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • The two main characters of Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl are named Shiramine Ayaka (shira meaning "white") and Kurosawa Yurine (kuro meaning "black") − although ironically, despite their names Ayaka is black-haired while Yurine is blonde.
  • In Kuroko's Basketball, all plot-relevant character from Teikou with the exception of Sanada have names spelled with colors. And with the exception of Nijimura, they all have matching hair and eye colors. Haizaki is a subversion that he used to have hair color match his eye, but in highschool dye his hair black.
    • Kuroko, "Kuro"/Black (blue hair and eyes despite the "black" kanji in his name)
    • Kise, "Ki"/Yellow
    • Midorima, "Midori"/Green
    • Aomine, "Ao"/Blue
    • Murasakibara, "Murasaki"/Purple
    • Akashi, "Aka"/Red
    • Momoi, "Momo"/Pink
    • Haizaki, "Hai"/Gray/Ash
    • Nijimura, "Niji"/Rainbow
    • Shirogane "Shiro"/White
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), Link wields the Four Sword, which splits him into four versions of himself, each wearing a different-colored tunic. There's Green, Blue, Red, and Vio, which is short for Violet.
  • Everyone in Magic Kaito has this: black (Kuroba), blue (Aoko), red (Akako), yellow (Kounosuke) white (Hakuba), silver (Ginzou), and pink (Momoi).
  • In Mahoraba all characters have a colour in their surname, usually in Japanese. The listnote written in full on the work page consists of at least 22 characters with unique colours (there are more characters, but some aren't named, and some are related).
  • Mitsuboshi Colors stars three girls who identify respectively with the colors red, yellow and blue, and whose known family names are Akamatsu (red) for Yui and Kise (yellow) for Sat-chan. It's safe to assume that Kotoha's surname starts with Ao (blue).
  • My Monster Secret: Many characters have a color in their names, like Kuromine (black), Shiragami (white), Aizawa (blue) or Mikan (orange − although it's the fruit)...
    • Shishido (purple), Shirou (white), Koumoto Akari (red), Akane (rose madder, a red dye), Kiryuuin (yellow), Shirogane (silver), Ryokuenzaka (green), Momochi (pink), Minagawa (aqua).
  • Naruto:
    • Two people from Kirigakure have color-based names: Haku (white) and Ao (blue).
    • Kurenai (crimson), who has crimson eyes and dresses in crimson. Her father's name, Shinkuu, also contains the kanji for crimson, specifically the kuu part.
  • Ojarumaru: The Kooni Trio's English names reflect their colors - Aobee becomes Blue-Joe, Akane becomes Scarlet, and Kisuke becomes Khakie (like khaki, a pale brown-yellow color).
  • The Three Admirals in One Piece follow this as well: Their code-names are Akainu (Red Dog), Aokiji (Blue Pheasant) and Kizaru (Yellow Monkey). Also a case of Religious and Mythological Theme Naming, as a dog, pheasant, and monkey were the animals that accompanied the folk hero Momotaro on his journey.
    • The next two admirals are called Fujitora (Purple Tiger) and Ryokugyu (Green Bull).
      • Smoker, although not an Admiral, is also called "White Hunter."
      • There are also several Marine officers who follow the color-animal trend of the Admirals, despite being of lower rank. To wit, there's Momousagi (Pink/Peach Rabbit), Kurouma (Black Horse) and Chaton (Brown Pig). Momousagi started as Ascended Fanon, and the other two seem to just be Oda continuing the trend For the Lulz.
    • In tenth movie Strong World, Shiki's main crewmembers have a color in their name. Golden Lion Shiki. Doctor Indigo. Scarlett.
  • The Pokédex holders from Pokémon Adventures are named for the video game editions that they're from. So the Generation I protagonists are named Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow; two of the three from Gen II are Gold and Silver (the third, Crystal, isn't a color); Gen III has Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald; and Gen V has Black and White in the first arc and Black-Two and Whi-Two (Blake and Whitley in the English translation) in its second, plus side characters Cheren and Bel (Slavic for black and white; in English Bel's name gets swapped out for the Italian equivalent, Bianca).
  • Pretty Cure
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure actually gained this trope in the English dub, with Nagisa becoming Natalie Blackstone and Honoka becoming Hannah Whitehouse.
      • In fact, Honoka's original surname is Yukishiro, meaning "snow castle", but if "shiro" is written differently, the meaning becomes "snow white".
      • Nagisa had it in the original too. "Misumi" was spelled with the kanji "sumi", which means "black ink".
    • Fresh Pretty Cure! has a similar theme. The first two Pretty Cures are Love Momozono (pink) and Miki Aono (blue). The remaining two, Inori Yamabuki and Setsuna Higashi, don't follow this theme (Setsuna and her former comrades are named after speed and cardinal directions).
    • Smile PreCure!: four of the five Cures have their signature colors in their names: Akane Hino (red), Yayoi Kise (yellow), Nao Midorikawa (green), and Reika Aoki (blue).
      • In several Glitter Force dubs (such as Spanish), the Glitter Force are named for what colour they are (Glitter Rosa, Glitter Verde, Glitter Azul, etc.)
    • In KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, three of the six Cures have a name connected to a colour: Aoi (blue), Yukari (purple), and Akira (red). The other three have names with only a vague connection to their signature colour; Ichika (similar to "strawberry"; she wears pink, and strawberries are one of her main themes), Himari ("sunny"; her main colour is yellow), and Ciel ("sky"; she wears a sky-blue dress).
  • Almost everyone in Rosario + Vampire has the kanji for a color somewhere in their names. Akashiya Moka (red), Aono Tsukune (blue), Shirayuki Mizore (white), Kurono Kurumu (black), Morioka Ginei (silver) and Sendou Yukari (written with the kanji for "purple"). These colors are appropriate for the characters, such as Mizore having ice powers and Gin being a werewolf.
  • Many characters in RED: Living On The Edge have this type of name. There's the protagonist Red, Big Bad Blue, The Lancer Ieroh Itoh "Yellow", Action Girl Angie White Night, Badass Preacher Gray, Cool Old Guy Goldsmith and so on.
  • In Samurai Flamenco, all the Flamengers (With the sole exception of the main character and Red Ranger Masayoshi Hazama) have the word for their respective colors at the beginning of their last names (Soichi Aoshima, Sakura Momoi, Hekiru Midorikawa and Anji Kuroki.)
  • Tamagotchi Friends: The Dreambakutchis from Tamagotchi! Miracle Friends all have different names, "Dreambakutchi" with their color attached to the beginning, to differentiate them. They are named Akairobakutchi (red), Orangebakutchi, Kiirobakutchi (yellow), Midoribakutchi (green), Mizuirobakutchi (aqua), Aoibakutchi (blue), Murasakibakutchi (purple), and Pinkbakutchi.
  • The girls of Tokyo Mew Mew are all named after plants or desserts, and their last names follow the pattern of Color Place (Momomiya = Peach Shrine, Midorikawa = Green River, etc.)
  • The cast of Vividred Operation combine this with Numerical Theme Naming. Akane and Momo Isshiki (red, pink and one), Aoi Futaba (blue and two), Wakaba Saegusa (wakaba means leaves and Sae can be written as three), Himawari Shinomiya (himawari means sunflower and Shi is four), and Rei Kuroki (black and zero, also the only one with the colour in her surname).
    Comic Books 
  • Chris Ware, in his Acme Novelty Library series, has two nerd characters named Rusty Brown and Chalky White.
  • Blue Monday: Bleu Finnegan, the main character, has blue hair. She's the only character named after a color though.
  • A lot of Transformers have their primary colors in their names. Transformers: Wings of Honor features a red Seeker who originally went unnamed but was later given the name "Red Wing."
  • X-Factor: The Ravens, very obscure vampiric foes of the original X-Factor, all had color names: Crimson, Azure, Coral, Cerise, Beryl, Ruby, and Cobalt.
    Fan Works 
  • Among You: Enforced by MIRA; employees aren’t allowed to go by their birth names, only their colours, as it makes it easier to report back to HQ.
  • In Super Sentai vs. Power Rangers: The Liveblog, Radiguet's six monsters are all named after a color in Japanese and their main elemental powers: Akire (red fire), Aocean (blue ocean), Midorungle (green jungle), Momortex (pink vortex), Darkuroi (black darkness), and Kithunder (yellow thunder).
  • A.A. Pessimal takes a look at the Captain Scarlet world in the story When The War Is Over👁 Image
    . Spectrum needs a lot of operatives. But the English language has only a limited number of colour terms. How do you get past the bottleneck and get employee numbers up to establishment? The tale discusses various imaginative ways to name new officers...
  • Much like the books it's based on, Conducting Shooting Stars👁 Image
     names Irratino's mothers—here called Iris and Bianca—based on colors. In their case, rather than be directly named after colors, their names reference them in more subtle ways: Iris is named for the Greek goddess of rainbows, and Bianca's name is Italian for "white".
  • DNMC: As per tradition of the series that spawned it, all the characters are named after something related to colors, symbolic or otherwise.
    • D'Arg is named after "dearg", the Irish word for "red".
    • Nara is named after "naranja", the Spanish word for "orange".
    • Mak is named after "makani", the Hawaiian word for "wind", which is often represented by the color green.
    • Cyena is named after "cyan", a shade of blue, but is meant to be pronounced as "Sienna".
  • Glitter Force: Into the Glitterverse: Miki Aono ("ao" meaning "blue") is given the English name "Mikayla Blueberg".
  • Inkopolis Chaos: Many characters' names correlate with their respective ink colors:
    • Samuel Turfblu has blue ink.
    • Samuel's cousin, Sylvia Turfora, has orange ink.
    • Luke Virigree's surname is a portmanteau of "viridian" and "green", and sounds like “verdigris” (though his ink is lime).
    • Melody Rose's ink is hot pink.
    • Ruby Diorite and Scarlet Spiker have red ink.
    • Jess Rubrum's ink is also red, and her last name is a term for the short summary of a document, which was often written in red early on.
    • Jade Grady's ink is the same green as Luke's.
    • Summer's ink is yellow, a color stereotypically associated with summer and the sun.
    • The aqua-inked Cyalux Clover's name is a portmanteau of "cyan" and "lux", the latter being Latin for "light".
    • The purplish-inked Magentark Clover's name is a portmanteau of "magenta" and "dark".
    • Lieutenant Obsidian's ink is black, just like the namesake volcanic glass.
  • Nikoto's NSFW Pokémon Forum Quest: The three protagonists follow the color edition theme. Cerise is named after a vivid pinkish red, "Hunter" fits forest and grassland's green, and Indigo's namesake is the purplish color similar to blue.
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): "OMAKE": As noted in the Author's notes at the end of the chapter:
    The five pilots have their names related to color. The Hi in Daisuke Higawa means crimson, the Aoi in Rei Aoiyama is blue, the Kuro in Haruka Kuroba means black, and Midori means green. Kamiya was the first Japanese surname I could think of, and came from Tai and Kari Kamiya of Digimon. Guess where I got Victoria Wednesday's name from. Hint: her color is pink.note As said in Chapter 19, "Victoria Wednesday's surname comes from Mean Girls. One of the girls says that they wear pink on Wednesdays."
  • The Palaververse: A version of Clue is played as a form of gambling in Wedding March, and uses the same colorful naming style as in the game:
    “J’accuse … Commodore Cerise… in the coal cellar … with ...” The jenny checked the cards in the clefts of her hooves before finishing with “ … a very small and exceptionally pointy unicorn.”
    [...]
    “So many potential enemies, this victim,” [...] “Last time, it was Granny Glaucous in the walk-in wardrobe with a half-brick in a sock, and before that, it was Inspector Infrared in the billiards room with a forthrightly appendaged fertility statue.
  • With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: Several people's codenames have a color in them or are related to colors:
    • Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby respectively have the names "Red", "Blue", "Green", and "Purple".
    • Soren and Claudia are "Silver and Gold", which represents how Viren favored Claudia for being gifted while Soren was Book Dumb.
    • In the collection Closet of Colors, all the characters have color-themed names.
  • The Sun Will Come Up, and the Seasons Will Change features an anthropomorphic marshmallow named Blanca and her son Shiro. Both names mean white, in Spanish and Japanese, respectively.
    Films — Animated 
  • Say Hi to Pencil! really gets down to it with the red, blue, and yellow pens being named Red, Blue, and Yellow, respectively.
    Films — Live-Action 
  • Avengers: Infinity War: The members of Thanos's "Black Order" squad all have names evocative of the color black: Corvus Glaive ("corvus" is the Latin name for ravens, which are black), Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, and Proxima Midnight.
  • Faust: Love of the Damned: Both of John Jaspers's girlfriends have color-themed names, Blue and Jade, respectively.
  • In Quantum of Solace, Mr. White's employer is a certain Dominic Greene, and one of Greene's subordinates is a Mr. Slate.
  • Reservoir Dogs contains an homage to Pelham with Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, and Mr. White. (Although, to be fair, these are assigned aliases deliberately chosen to adhere to a theme.) According to Joe, someone on another job is Mr. Purple, or else he was just claiming that to shut down Mr. Pink's complaints about his alias.
  • Resident Evil (2002): As shown in the closing credits, many Umbrella employees in the Hive are named after colors; Mr. Grey, Mr. Red, Ms. Black, Dr. Green, Dr. Blue, Dr. Brown, Mr. White, and Ms. Gold.
  • Star Wars: In the Original Trilogy, the Rebel Alliance's starfighter squadrons are designated by different colors, e.g., in A New Hope, the X-Wings were Red Squadron and the Y-Wings were Gold Squadron. The exception to this was in The Empire Strikes Back, in which their Snowspeeders were Rogue Squadron.
  • Coincidentally occurs among a few cast members of School of Rock: Jack Black, Mike White, Sarah Silverman, Jordan-Clair Green and Rebecca Brown.
  • Mr. Blue, Mr. Grey, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Green (note that these are all quite normal American surnames) from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
    Literature 
  • Accel World has all Duel Avatars get two-part names; the first word is a color, which determines the characteristics of the avatar, and the second word describes the Avatar. For example, Silver Crow is a metallic type that can fly, while Scarlet Rain is a long-range combat specialist (red types focus on range attacks).
  • From the Aubrey-Maturin series: Aubrey and his friend and fellow post-captain Heneage Dundas discuss the captain of HMS Iris, who not only wants to dress his bargemen in the colors of the rainbow (due to the connotation of his ship's name), but specifically seeks out sailors named for said colors: e.g., with surnames like "Scarlett," "White," or "Green." He offered Dundas a brass "chaser" cannon in exchange for one of his sailors whose name was Blew. (Dundas declined, sharing with Aubrey a dislike for "costumed" bargemen.)
  • In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy), the members of the Covey all have two given names, one of which is taken from a traditional ballad while the other is a colour. They are always referred to by both names (Tam Amber, Barb Azure, Billy Taupe, Lucy Gray, Clerk Carmine, Maude Ivory) and Lucy Gray is quick to correct a Capitol reporter who addresses her simply as "Lucy".
  • Each of stories that make up Brothers of the Snake is named in "[color] [X]" pattern, such as Black Gold, Blue Blood or Crimson Wake.
  • In the Casson Family Series, all four children are named after colours, their parents being artists. The eldest is Cadmium Gold, and the colour yellow sums up her personality pretty well, she is bright, cheerful and everyone likes her. Her younger brother Indigo (dark blue) is quieter, thoughtful and sensitive. He also likes to watch the starry sky at night. Saffron on the other hand is a proud, independent girl who feels lonely and isolated since she found out that she was adopted when her mother, her stepmother's twin sister, died. Saffron is outspoken, direct and can be quite harsh at times. It is said that she resembles Cadmium, meaning she is very pretty. The youngest is Permanent Rose, an adorable, very stubborn girl and the artist of the family. She nearly died when she was born, so her mother named her Permanent Rose, as a promise that she would stay.
  • Discworld: In Thief of Time, after the Auditors take human form en masse, they name themselves after various colours, possibly a nod towards Reservoir Dogs. Since there's so many of them, they're hard pressed for available colors, such as one furiously arguing that yes, dark avocado is a color so shut up. Not to mention arguing over which colors are higher in hierarchy and trying to take them for themselves.
  • In Domina, Akane and her sisters all have color names: Midori (green), Shiro (white), Murasaki (violet), and Akane (red). The trend apparently started with Midori: Despite being pure-blooded Japanese, she has green eyes, which are extremely rare. It seems like the rest were just named to fit the theme.
  • Good Omens: Three of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have taken on human identities, all referring to the colour of their horse in Revelation: War is initially Scarlett, but later adopts a new identity as Carmina "Red" Zuigiber; Famine is Dr Raven Sable; and Pollution goes through a series of Only Known by Their Nickname identities called Chalky, Snowy, Blanco, etc.
  • The Good, the Bad and the Mediochre. Mediochre himself insists his name is a shade of red. His boss is named Kiwi, a shade of green. The dragon he encounters is named Deep Ocean, which she tells him is a shade of blue. The Big Bad uses the code name 'Sapphire', another shade of blue.
  • Heart of the Journey: Scarlet's aliases which she uses for library cards - at least the ones that are named in the text - tend to have names connected to shades of red, like "Rose Jusenkyou" and "Carmine Jusenkyou", matching her real name.
  • Ishura:
    • The Seventeenth Minister, Elea the Red Tag, got her second name for her ruthless methods in intelligence gathering, which included torture and assassination. She even murdered her father and some schoolmates before joining the council.
    • The Twenty-First General, Tuturi the Blue Violet Foam, is another official with a color-based second name, though the origin of her title remains unclear.
    • Roto the Cross’s first name comes from the German word rot (red), making her full name an allusion to the Red Cross. Fittingly, she is a construct created by a medical expert to bring peace to the world (supposedly) and possesses abilities centered around controlling blood.
  • The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess: Many surnames in the series have a color theme to them. Euphyllia Magenta, Ilia Coral, Tilty Claret (a reddish-purple), and at the top of all the colors is the royal family of Palettia, or color palette.
  • Murdle: In what's likely a Shout-Out to Clue, every suspect is named after a color—though since Murdle has a lot more suspects, it has to go much farther afield for its names (such as Captain Slate, Mx. Tangerine, and Agent Fuchsia). The only characters who aren't named after colors are main characters Deductive Logico and Inspector Irratino, both of whom have Meaningful Names instead.
  • Ro.Te.O has a TV show called Crimson which is crucial to the plot. In it, there's the titular thief Crimson and the White Knight (a Kaitou).
  • The Stranger Times: In the second book, a group of pick-up artists refer to each other only by colour nicknames corresponding to their preferred outerwear. Mr. Red has a red hoodie, Mr. Green has a green anorak, etc.
  • Seekers: Lusa's name is the Choctaw word for "black" because she has an all-black pelt.
  • All four of The Ultra Violets are named after colours: Iris, Cheri, Scarlet, and Opaline.
  • In Warrior Cats, the first part of cats' names come from things a forest cat would know, such as plants, animals, and natural objects. They also use a lot of colors — every basic color except purple and pink. They even use some more unusual colors, such as "golden", "silver", "copper", "russet", "tawny", "amber", and "fallow". Oddly enough, out of over 1000 characters, "white" is the most common prefix of all, and even "fallow" got used about five times, but "brown" only got used once, and the cat in question disappeared from the cast list before recieving his warrior name.
  • The Young Ancients: The Ancients, a group of immortal test-tube babies who each take charge of rebuilding a continent in their image After the End all take their favorite colors as their names, having started out with only alphanumeric strings. Over time, several add to them like Laura Grey, Derren Brown, and Burkes LairdGren. Others include White, Black, Red, Orange, and Blue. Once the protagonist gets recognized by the Ancients as an equal, they take to calling him Purple, again for his favorite color.
    Live-Action TV 
    Music 
  • Two of Eir Aoi's studio albums are named after translations of the word "blue", which is also part of her surname (Ao). They are Blau (German) and d'Azur (French).
    Pinballs 
  • All of the rivals in Banzai Run follow this theme: Green Machine, Blue Beard, Yellow Belly, and Red Hot.
    Puppet Shows 
    Sport 
  • New Zealand's Rugby Union team is called the All Blacks, and other national sporting teams have followed their lead: the All Whites (soccer), Tall Blacks (Basketball), and Black Caps (Cricket). Their netball team, the Silver Ferns, may also count.
    Tabletop Games 
  • Cluedo (known as Clue in America) has all the main characters named after the colors of the pawns used in the older versions (Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Prof. Plum, Mr. or Rev. Green, and Col. Mustard). The victim's name is Dr. Black (though changed to Mr. Boddy in the American version). Extended versions and variations keep with the trend, naming characters after other colors. There was Miss Peach, Mme. Rose, M. Brunette, Capt. Brown, Inspector Brown, Rusty (also brown), Sgt. Gray, Mr. Slate-Gray, Lord Gray, Inspector Gray, Lady Lavender, Prince Azure, Mrs. Meadow-Brook (blue-green), and Dr. Orchid, though of course (since some colors are repeated) they're not all used in the same variations.
    • And in the French version: Dr. Lenoir (the victim), Dr./Rev. Olive (Rev. Green), Prof. Violet (Prof Plum), Mlle Rose (Miss Scarlet), Mme Leblanc (Mrs. White), Mme Pervenche (Mrs. Peacock)... And Col. Mustard, whose name was literally translated.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • Most of the original Space Marine chapters were named for their armour colours, only later developing personalities, traits, idiosyncracies and histories of their own. These being the Blood Angels (blood red), Flesh Tearers (dark red), Ultramarines (blue), Space Wolves (grey), Dark Angels (black), Whitescars (white), Silver Skulls (bright silver), Iron Hands (dark silver) and Rainbow Warriors (blue with a rainbow slash on the helmet).
    • And then you have the Gray Knights, who are, well, gray (their armor isn't painted like other chapters, those knights who achieve greatness instead have their personal heraldry painted on it).
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! card game has the Dark World archetype, each of which has a name similar to that of a color. They all have the common tie in that their effects depend on being discarded from the player's hand by the opponent.
    • Latinum: Platinum or white
    • Goldd: Gold, or yellow.
    • Siilva: Silver, or gray.
    • Scarr: Scarlet, or red.
    • Brron: Bronze, or green.
    • Gren: Green.
    • Renge: Orange.
    • Zure: Azure, or blue.
    • Beiige: Beige, or brown.
    • Celuri: Cerulean, or cyan.
    • Snoww: Snow, or white.
    • Reign-Beaux: Rainbow. Incidentally, he's the strongest of the bunch.
    • Grapha: Graphite or grey. He's stronger then Reign-Beaux.
    Toys 
  • Rainbow High, tying in with its overall theme of colors, has nearly every character named in some form after their theme color, in either the first name, last name, or both. For example, the first six characters include red-themed Ruby Anderson, green themed Jade Hunter, and purple themed Violet Willow. Orange-themed Poppy Rowan is named after a color of poppy, Sunny Madison is named after the sun which is often pictured as yellow, and Skylar Bradshaw is named after the sky, which is often portrayed as blue. Sometimes this is very blatant — it's clear what color Scarlet Rose has as a theme — or very subtle; Sheryl Meyer, for example, is yellow-themed, and meyer is a widespread kind of lemon.
  • Sky Dancers: Dolls produced by Lansay in 2022 are named after colors: Coral Cutie, Fuchsia Fantasy, Miss Mint, Purple Licious, Sapphire Sparkle, and the two-pack of Silver Star & Golden Glam.
    Video Games 
  • Both the Erusean Air Force and the Belkan Air Force from Ace Combat use colours for squadron names, though Belka uses the German versions. In an aversion of the Law of Chromatic Superiority, Yellow Squadron is Erusea's elite unit.
  • Bomb Club: All the members of the titular club have names that matches their CMYK Chromatic Arrangement. Ian for cyan, Maggie for Magenta, Jon for yellownote from the French word for yellow, jaune, and Blake for Black.
  • In Bug Fables, Vi's full name is Violet (using French pronunciation (vee-oh-lay), to preserve the punniness of her shortened name). Though she ironically lacks any purple in her design, her name is complimentary to her sister's name, Jaune, which is a French word for yellow.
  • Cragne Manor: The positions of the Aldermen of the Variegated Court are all named after archaic colors. For example, Mazarine is a shade of blue, while Fuscous is a combination of colors averaging out to a brownish gray.
  • All of the main cast and some supporting characters from Croma Heroes has the name of a color. Even towns and other places follow the theme, such as Brush, Hue, Canvas, Inky mines and Watercolor Port.
  • The three player characters in the Detectives United series are Anna Gray, Agent Brown, and James Blackthorne. This might simply be a coincidence - the series is a Crisis Crossover for three mystery game series produced by Elephant Games, so they had these names in their original games - but it still fits.
  • In Everhood, almost all of the major characters have colors as part of their names. You have Red, Blue Thief, Gold Pig, Purple Mage, Green Mage, Professor Orange, Pink, and Yellow.
  • Roughly half the characters in Exodus: Escape From Fort Bullwark are named after colors, from Carmine to Coral to Captain Bur-Gundy to the main character, Fuchsia.
  • Filament:
    • The Filament Corporation names all normal employees after colors; the Alabaster's crew consists of Canary (yellow), Vermillion (red), Pistachio (green), Juniper (blue), Marmalade (orange), and Aubergine (purple). The remote captain is Swan (white). Even the ship's cat, Sable, maintains the theme.
    • Yellow seems to be the color for scientists, indicating that the colors may be role-related. Canary previously worked with Dandelion and Butterscotch.
    • "Colorless" (white) is used for ship's captains and other managers; one document says it is restricted to colorless roles only. The captains that we see mentioned are both named for animals: Swan and Fox.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • The villains of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus are called Rosso (red) the Crimson, Azul (blue) the Cerulean, Shelke (amber) the Transparent, Nero (black) the Sable and Weiss (white) the Immaculate.
    • In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, you get to engage with the Cinquleur (from cinq couleurs, five colours in French), whose names are Ruuj (red), Bliu (blue), Verre (green), Nware (black), and Blanch (white), each representing their job class. Unfortunately the enemy sprite colors don't match the names.
  • In Freedom Planet, the main character's name is Sash Lilac. Lilac is a pale shade of purple, and it's also the color of her skin.
  • Every major character in Gunstar Heroes is named after a color, with the exception of Pink's two sidekicks (Kain and Kotaro), as well as Smash Daisaku (though he's renamed Colonel Red in the international release).
  • Hue: Fittingly for a game about seeing color in a monochrome world, the two named characters both have this: the titular Hue and Dr. Grey.
  • Inazuma Eleven GO: The managers in GO and Chrono Stones are named after colours, both in the dub and the original Japanese version: Skie Blue/Aoi, Rosie Redd/Akane, and Jade Greene/Midori. The fourth major girl added to the cast, Goldie Lemon/Kinako (yellow), follows the same pattern.
  • The three high school friends from Jack French and the 7 Dwarfs: Michel Lebrun (French for "brown"), Sam Black and Will White.
  • Kingdom Hearts has a colourful music theme of the 'bell' type Heartless (Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera and Green Requiem in the first game and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories; Crimson Jazz, Silver Rock, and Emerald Blues in Kingdom Hearts II). About a dozen more were added in 358/2 Days.
  • Kirby:
  • Six of the seven sages from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds are named after colors of the rainbow (with the odd one out being Impa, whose status as a Legacy Character means that her name predates the theme).
  • LiEat has Vermillion Town, Azure Town and Gold Town.
  • Look Outside: The four Astronomers are named after things that match their eye colors.
  • In the Japanese version of Miitopia, the Slime enemies are named after their colour. This is dropped in the English traduction, in which they follow Edible Theme Naming instead.
  • In The Mysterious Murasame Castle, the four lesser castles are named Aosame, Akasame, Ryokusame and Momosame, which respectively contain the Japanese words for blue, red, green and pink.
  • All the Neons in Neon White are named with colors that correspond to the color of their hair and clothes. Neon White has black hair, but he's dressed head to toe in white.
  • The main CPUs in the Neptunia series, aside from Neptune, are named after French color names, matching their outfits and the consoles they're based on: Noire (black), Blanc (white) and Vert (green). Additionally, the HDD form of every CPU is named "[color] Heart", with Neptune being Purple Heart, Noire being Black Heart, Blanc being White Heart and Vert being Green Heart.
  • Olympia Soirée: Keeping in line with the color themes of the story, most of the characters are named after the color of their respective clan. For example, Olympia's real name "Byakuya", means "white night" in Japanese, reflecting her heritage as a member of Tennyo Island's White clan, while Akaza's name can be read as "red sand", which is fitting for someone who belongs to the Red clan.
  • Paper Mario: Color Splash: Piper's friends are Redd, Bloo, Greenie, Yella, and Purp, all named after their respective colors.
  • The Path: All the girls' names are variations on "Red": Robin, Rose, Ginger, Ruby, Carmen, and Scarlet.
  • Phantom Brave examples include Ash, Walnut, Canary, Scarlet, Marona, Castile, and Sulphur.
    • To specify, the characters are named after wood hues (though some just have normal colors as their names) Marona is derived from the french world from Maroon, Ash is synonymous with grey/black, Scarlet is a shade of red (and Sienna, a yellow-brown) and Canary (a one man Animal Wrongs Group) is named from Canary Yellow. Of cuse some don't match this pattern (Namely Raphael and Sprout). Other characters with color names include Chief Editor Indigo, Sienna's assistant, Murasaki (Japanese for purple). Marona's mother is Jasmine, and Walnut's real name is Faded.
    • Most unique abilities for characters are also color themed. Marona's family has the ability "Chartreuse". Scarlet the Brave and Walnut have "Psycho Burgundy", Raphael's ability "Heliotrope" (Pink), Sprout's "Dark Eboreous" (Ebony), Flame's "Cobalt Blues", Fox's "Viridian Copper", Lierre's "Myosotis" (The color of forget-me-nots), and Drab's "Mega Crocus" (A color of lilies).
  • Pokémon:
    • Many of the entries in the franchise are titled after colors: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Pearl, Platinum, Black, White, Black 2, and White 2. This trend was eventually retired starting with Pokémon X and Y in Generation VI, but it was brought back with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and its DLCs, "The Teal Mask" and "The Indigo Disk".
    • For location names:
      • Compounding the color-themed titles, the towns and cities of the Kanto region introduced in Pokémon Red and Blue are all named after colors (playing the games on the SNES's Super Game Boy or through one of the Stadium games on the N64 yields a different color scheme for each town based on the name). Pokémon Gold and Silver introduces the neighboring Johto region, whose towns and cities combine this trope with theme naming based on plants — for example, Ecruteak (teakwood and the color ecru), Cianwood (wood in general and cyan), and Mahogany (both a type of wood and a color derived from it).
      • Lumiose City in Pokémon X and Y and Pokémon Legends: Z-A is subdivided into five districts, each named after a color in French: Bleu (blue), Vert (green), Jaune (yellow), Rouge (red), and Magenta (named "Rose", French for pink, in the original Japanese).
      • The Alola region in Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is an archipelago based on Hawaii. Each of Alola's four main islands is based on a real Hawaiian island, and each one is named after the Hawaiian word for the official colors👁 Image
        assigned to their real-life counterparts: Melemele Island (O'ahu) is yellow, Akala Island (Maui) is pink, Ula'ula Island (Hawai'i) is red, and Poni Island (Kaua'i) is purple.
      • The research areas in the spinoff game Pokémon Sleep are all named after colors (Greengrass Isle, Cyan Beach, Taupe Hollow, etc.).
    • For character names:
      • Red and Blue are the main characters of the original games. A character named Leaf was added in the FireRed and LeafGreen remakes as it adds the ability to choose the PC's gender found in later games (storywise, she's pretty much just Red, but female). The sequels, Pokémon Gold and Silver, have Gold (later renamed Ethan), Silver, and the Odd Name Out Kris as main characters. It wasn't until after that generation that they stopped naming player characters after colors.
      • Pokémon Black and White introduces Cheren and Bianca as your rival characters, complementing each other in both personalities and names — Cheren is Slavic for black, Bianca is Italian for white. Also, all the Seven Sages in the game are named after colours of the rainbow... except for Ghetsis, who shares Musical Theme Naming (G-C#) with his son N.
      • Hugh is your rival character in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, and his name is derived from "hue".
      • The two mascots of Pokémon Sword and Shield might illustrate the Arms and Armor Theme Naming, but their names allude to their primary color — the blue-furred blade-carrying Zacian ("the cyan") and the red-furred armor-producing Zamazenta ("the magenta").
      • Multiple characters in Pokémon Legends: Z-A are named after colors: Canari (French for canary, as in canary yellow), Gwynn (Cornish for white) and her brother Ivor (from ivory, a white color), Jacinthe (named after the blue-purple flower hyacinth; though her names in multiple languages also evoke the color violet), and Grisham and Griselle (both derived from gris/grise, French for gray).
  • In Runbow, the main characters are named after the HSV color space👁 Image
    . The default male Player Character is named Hue, the Big Bad is named Satura(tion), and the default female player character is named Val(ue).
  • SaGa Frontier brings us twins Blue and Rouge, as well as Red, who seems to be an expy of the Treasure Hunter G character.
  • Shanghai.EXE: Genso Network: Autoroid variants are named based on their color. Red, Blue and Green, and also Tiered by Name:
    • The first tier is AutordR, AutordB, AutordG.
    • The second tier has V2 as the tier name suffix. Red is just AutordV2 while Blue and Green are AutordBV2, and AutordGV2.
  • Solatorobo: Red the Hunter: The titular protagonist is, of course, named after the color red. Come the second half of the game and some supplementary material, we learn that other characters with connections to him are as well:
    • In the second half of the game, we're introduced to two antagonists called Nero (Italian for "black") and Blanck (French for "white"), two pseudo-hybrids that were created to the control the Titano-Machina as a part of Baion's plans. It's loosely implied by the game and clarified by supplementary material that while Nero and Blanck were given their names to denote their "perfect" natures, Red was given his name to denote him as a failure (or as a reference to how the Caninu and Felineko cannot see the color red). Supplementary material has also revealed that the Nero and Blanck seen in the game proper are Legacy Characters; during the time of the Old World, the "original hybrids" that controlled Lemures and Lares were also called Nero and Blanck. It's also been theorized that the name of Baion, another "original hybrid" in the same vein, is a corruption of the Ancient Greek word phaión (φαιόν), meaning "grey".
    • Supplementary material such as the "Red Data Children" novels reveal that the other hybrids created by Baion and Merveille have names based off the various shades of the color red: Carmine is named from a rich variation of red; Rosé is named for a warm pink color; Vermillion is a brilliant orange-tinted red; and Rouge is the French word for red. It's also revealed that an NPC from the main game and an associate of Carmine's, Quynne, was a hybrid with the original codename of "Crimson". Even the supposedly unnamed "9071", a hybrid from the "9071 Morning Sacrifice" light novel, can be read as "kurenai" in Japanese, referring to another shade of deep red.
  • RED and BLU of Team Fortress 2, natch (which doubles as Fun with Acronyms). Other fronts for the organizations seen in the in-game signage also follows this convention (such as Red Bread and Blue Corn in the Granary map), as do the names of their founders, Redmond and Blutarch Mann.
  • Touhou Project:
    • Chen, Ran, and Yukari's names mean Orange, Indigo, and Violet respectively. Each name's color's position on the electromagnetic spectrum corresponds to its owner's power level with violet being the strongest and orange being the weakest.
    • And then there are the Scarlet sisters, and "Lily Black", who is Lily White cosplaying, or a completely different character.
  • Red and Blue, heroes of Treasure Hunter G, are members of an entire family of color-based names. Other characters are exempt from the theme, though.
  • The three siblings from Detana!! TwinBee are named after their respective colors: namely Light (Blue), Pastel (Pink) and Mint (Green).
  • All of the characters of VVVVVV are named after colors. For bonus points, all of their names also start with the letter "V" (Viridian, Vermilion, Violet, etc.; hence the game's title).
  • The members of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council from Yandere Simulator are named after the colours which correspond to their hair colours and one of The Four Gods of the Chinese mythology.
    • For Kuroko, "kuro" means black, named after the Black Tortoise of the North.
    • For Akane, "aka" means red, named after the Vermilion Bird of the South.
    • For Aoi, "ao" means blue, named after the Azure Dragon of the East.
    • For Shiromi, "shiro" means white, named after the White Tiger of the West.
    Web Animation 
  • Overly Sarcastic Productions is a channel co-run by Red, who makes videos about works of fiction, and Blue, who makes videos about history. Both their on-screen avatars are drawn in these colors as well. Their staff and family members also have color-coded nicknames despite rarely appearing in videos — Indigo is their editor, Cyan is Blue's wife, and Magenta is Red's sister.
  • RWBY: Volume 2's Field Trip reveals that eighty years before the series begins, there was a terrible world war where even artistic self-expression was at stake. In memory and defiance of this, people have ever since named their children after colors, a core concept of art. Nearly all characters in the show are colour-themed, as are their team names. Using the show's titular Team RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") as an example: Ruby is red-themed and named after a red precious stone; Weiss' name comes from a German word for 'white' because she's white-themed; the black-themed Blake wears predominantly black and white, and her name comes from two Old English sources that mean "dark" and "pale"; Yang is named after a Chinese word for light and the sun to represent her yellow theme. Ozpin and Salem are an exception to the rule for plot-significant reasons. The creators published online👁 Image
    the rules they follow for the colour-theme naming, so some character names only indirectly reference colours such as the Vale news reporter Cyril Ian, whose name is a pun of the colour "cerulean".
    Webcomics 
  • In Bailin and Li Yun, Bailin's name is derived from the Chinese for "white scales" (白鱗). Ditto his brother, Huilin, for "gray scales" (灰鱗).
  • Beanstalked has Azure, who's based on the Blue Fairy from Disney's adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio.
  • College Roomies from Hell!!!: Michael Redford Green and his sister Blue, and mother Hazel.
  • In Colour Wheel, all the named characters so far are named after their color scheme. Some are more blatant than others.
  • Little Lapses: Blue the Phanpy and her sister Navy are shades of, well, blue, both physically and in name. Cinnabar the Scorbunny is also named after a shade of red.
  • The Ménage à 3 spinoff Sticky Dilly Buns features sisters Amber and Ruby, hitting this and also Rock Theme Naming.
  • In No Rest for the Wicked, Perrault remembers the red theme👁 Image
    of Red's name.
  • In +EV, the mother's name is Violet. Her first daughter is Scarlett, which is a shade of red. And violet is a mixture of red and blue. So it was logical to give their second daughter a name that's a shade of blue, and thus she was named... Ultramarine!
  • In the Sequential Art Webcomic, the squirrel sisters👁 Image
    Scarlet, Amber, Jade and Violet. Though when written it's rather 5C4RL37, 4M83R, J4D3 and V10L37.
  • In Sinfest, the first two succubi to become actual characters are Fuschia and Baby Blue — whose hair and clothing are that color. Others of them have been given color nicknames by fans, and one, Sapphire, has been made official. Amber, a human, may have been inadvertent.
  • In the (short-lived) WCI High, there was a trio of girls named Goldie, Sylvie, and Rusty.
    Web Original 
  • France Five, being a parody of Super Sentai, naturally follow the same format with its heroes: Red Fromage, Black Beaujolais, Blue Accordéon, Yellow Baguette, Pink à la mode.
  • In Jake Adelstein's article👁 Image
    about the Like a Dragon videogame series, as reviewed by actual yakuza, he gives the yakuza members he interviewed the aliases "Shirokawa" (white), "Kuroishi" (black) and "Midoriyama" (green) in the transcript to protect their identities.
  • In We Are Our Avatars, the Original Character Orange continues the color theme of the Red Ribbon Army Color Theme as he's the brother of Capt. Yellow), but he's also named after a citrus fruit, as he's the rival of Lime.
  • In The With Voices Project, All the Ib With Voices👁 Image
    episodes are named for the colors of the walls of the rooms Ib is exploring during that particular episode.
    Western Animation 
    Real Life 
  • This is a very common way to designate mass transit lines. Different lines tend to have different colors on maps anyway, and simply calling them after their colors makes them easy to remember and less confusing to outsiders. Some examples:
    • The Washington Metro has the Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines.
    • The Chicago L has the Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink, Brown, and Yellow Lines. Previously, the "L" named the lines after neighborhoods they served or streets that the line ran over (or in the median in the case of expressways). This led to long and confusing names like "Howard-Englewood-Jackson Park Line" or "Milwaukee-Congress-Douglas Line". Colors were introduced in 1993 to simplify the names, though some locals will still use the old names.
    • The T in Boston has Orange, Red, and Blue subway lines plus the Green Line, which is a subway/surface streetcar line, and the Silver Line, which is Bus Rapid Transit.
    • The Los Angeles Metro Rail has Blue, Red, Purple, Green, and Gold Lines of varying characters. There are other lines that do not adhere to the theme, however, like the Expo Line.
    • The New York Subway doesn't use color names, however, the color of a route's emblem is indicative of which trunk line that service uses in Manhattan. Specifically, red emblem routes use the IRT Broadway - Seventh Avenue Line, orange is for the IND Sixth Avenue Line, yellow is for the BMT Broadway Line, apple green is for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, lime green is for the IND Crosstown Line, blue is for the IND Eighth Avenue Line, purple is for the IRT Flushing Line, light gray is used for the BMT Canarsie Line, and dark gray is used for shuttle services.
    • The Twin Cities' mass transit system has light rail Green and Blue Lines, an operational Bus Rapid Transit Red Line, and an under-construction Bus Rapid Transit Orange Line.
    • The Portland Trimet MAX transit system has Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue Lines.
    • The Tyne and Wear Metro has two lines, Yellow and Green.
    • Philadelphia has this—sort of. Because nothing about Philadelphia transit nomenclature is simple, here's a breakdown:
      • Philadelphia has two primary heavy-rail rapid transit lines, operated by the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA). Officially, these are named for the streets they generally follow: one is called the B Line, historically the Broad Street Line, because it follows Broad Street. The other—historically the Market-Frankford Line (because it mostly follows Market Street and Frankford Avenue)—is officially the L, from the colloquial term "El" (short for "Elevated," because it is elevated outside of Center Citynote i.e. downtown and University Citynote a neighborhood immediately west of Center City so named because it is home to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University). Real Philly people generally call the Broad Street Line the "Subway" or the "Sub" (because it is underground for practically all of its length). However, some older materials refer to the B as the "Orange Line" and the L as the "Blue Line" because that is how they are universally colored on Philadelphia transit maps. Also, the signage and trim on the lines match the colors: Subway stations have signs with white lettering on orange and have trains with orange decorations and orange seats, while the El has signs with white lettering on blue and the trains have blue decoration and blue seats.
      • The SEPTA Subway-Surface Trolley (i.e. streetcar) system—officially designed the T Lines (T for "trolley") are universally colored green on transit maps. These run from West and Southwest Philadelphia and into tunnels in University City and Center City. All the trolleys have green trim and green seats and the stations are signed in green. The trolley lines were sometimes called the Green Lines (a bit like Boston, actually).
      • The M line ("M" for Montgomery County, which it serves, historically called the Norristown High Speed Line) — a weird modernized dinosaur of a service, running bus-like service on dedicated rail after the fashion of the interurbans of old — is universally colored purple on transit maps and has white-on-purple signage. However, it doesn't have purple trim or seats, and was rarely if ever called the "Purple Line."
      • The heavy-rail PATCO train to New Jersey is basically never called the "Red Line" — even though PATCO uses red very heavily in its branding and sand the line is universally colored red on Philadelphia/South Jersey transit maps.
      • Significantly, in the 1980s, the authorities tried to get everybody to start referring to these named services by their colors. Everybody — led by the city's main paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer — proceeded to laugh in the authorities' faces. While the Inky has since renounced its vehement opposition to the idea of colored lines (doubtless inspired by Chicago's experience), nobody has tried to actively revive it since. Significantly, when SEPTA decided to rebrand the lines to improve wayfinding in the early 2020s, they adopted a more German approach (with New York influence) of using letter and number combinations (letter to designate the trunkline, number to designate a different branch or service pattern — e.g. Broad Street Line services all start with a B, with B1 being the local, B2 being the express, and B3 being the Spur). Time will tell if this sticks.
      • Finally, and fascinatingly, while the 80s push to use colored designations mostly fizzled, it seems to have caught on in Philadelphia's substantial Spanish-speaking community. Hispanic Phillies are liable to call the L la Línea Azul and the B1 or Sub la Línea Naranja in Spanish even if they'd say "the El" and "the Sub" in English.
    • Pittsburgh has three light rail lines, designated Red, Blue, and Silver. Kind of.note The Silver is mostly concurrent with the Blue but branches off. Meanwhile the Red, Blue, and Silver run concurrently downtown, only for the Red to branch off from the Blue and then meet it again around the same place the Silver splits off. Most transit planners would denounce this as bad planning until they realized this was dictated to no small degree by Pittsburgh's absurdly difficult terrain. (This isn't to say it's the optimal setup, but one can see why the decisions were made.) Additionally, many of the city's bus services use three busways (highways dedicated exclusively to bus traffic), which all have names, but are also assigned colors: the South Busway is yellow, the West Busway is green, and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway is coded purple. The routes that run on those busways have letters designating the busway by the first letter of the assigned color (so Routes P1 and P67 run on the East Busway, while Route G2 would be on the West).
    • Cleveland's single heavy-rail rapid transit line is called the Red Line. Cleveland also has two premetro/light rail lines, designated Blue and Green.
    • Walt Disney World monorail trains are designated different colors. Blue, Black, Coral, Gold, Green, Lime, Orange, Peach, Red, Silver, Teal and Yellow are the colors used. Pink and Purple were retired after an incident in 2009 where one train crashed into another and the driver of Pink was killed.
    • Somewhat subverted with The London Underground: Like other examples here, London uses a colour coding system to distinguish between the various lines. However, nobody who lives in London actually refers to the lines with their colours. If you approach a Londoner for information about the Green Line, you will probably get a momentary blank stare followed by the answer to your question about the District Line.
    • Also subverted with the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system of Hong Kong in the same vein as London; the railway lines are colour-coded, but referring to a line by its colour (e.g. calling the Tsuen Wan Line "the Red Line" instead of its proper name) is a surefire way to tell a local apart from an out-of-towner.
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RWBY

Alternative Title(s): Colorful Theme Naming

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