“Amaranth” And 30+ Other Weird Color Names

Updated 11 months ago, January 16, 2024

Here are the weird colors that we are often too busy to take the time to see and hear.

Color is poetry. It is beauty and it is nostalgia. New life is breathed into every living thing when color is involved. The shade of a kiss, the green of a leaf, the soft and delicate hue of the blues and the pinks and the pastels that make up a sunset. All of these colors in nature come together to add something inexplainable to our every day moments. They add meaning to a memory. You’ll never forget the distinct brown of your first love’s eyes. You’ll never forget the apricot glow that danced inside of the sun when you were young and alive during the summertime. You’ll never forget the bruised purples of your favorite fruit, the cherry reds of the blush that spilled across your cheeks whenever your heart beat against your chest. You’ll never forget, and that is beautiful, because there are over 16,777,216 different color possibilities in nature, and they all make up your life.

So, despite being taught in art class that red was simply just red, and green was simply just green — we beg to differ. There are thousands of colors we don’t even have names for, but we often forget about the rare hues we have classified. From amaranth, to aegean, to obsidian, these weird color names have captured our imagination, and our awe, so much so that we have been inspired to collect them all here and share them with you.

Calamine

Calamine is the color of the trail your lover laced along your skin the night you told them you loved them for the first time.

Amaranth

Amaranth is the color of the five cent bubblegum you were always caught chewing in middle school.

Thistle

Thistle is the color that sank beneath your skin when your bruises surfaced to tell stories of the experiences you adventured through as a young and fearless child.

Flint

Flint is the color of the graphite words you patched along a piece of porcelain journaling paper when you were younger and trying to make sense of your feelings.

Heliotrope

Heliotrope is the color of the voracious laughter that fills the air between two best friends who haven’t seen each other in months.

Cerise

Cerise is the color your heart beats when you look at someone in the middle of a conversation and truly internalize just how deeply you care for them.

Tyrian

Tyrian is the color of intimate anticipation, the hue that hangs in the air on first dates, the shade that lingers between desire and longing.

Azure

Azure is the color of the kind of uncertainty that leaves you feeling both hopeful and uplifted.

Cerulean

Cerulean is the color of the feeling that washes over you when you go for a walk and notice that the streets are empty, and that everything is still.

Aegean

Aegean is the color that was stamped along your bedroom walls when you stared at them late at night, wondering if someone was waiting for you.

Catalina

Catalina is the color that calmly bleeds into the night sky minutes before the twilight breaks.

Chartreuse

Chartreuse is the color of every spontaneous decision you have ever made, the color of questionable, yet invigorating, memories.

Viridian

Viridian is the color of the wanderlust that thrives within your bones, the color of the vibrations that surge within you whenever you think about all that still needs to be discovered.

Birch

Birch is the color of the bark that acted as a canvas for your adolescent love, the color of the initials of you and your first crush that still adorns the trunks of trees in your hometown.

Bisque

Bisque is the color of the warm and balmy sheets you wrap around yourself whenever you fold fresh laundry.

Laurel

Laurel is the color of your favorite freckles in the eyes of the person you love.

Alabaster

Alabaster is the color of the sugar your father would scoop into his bitter coffee right before he would pick you up in his arms to kiss you goodbye in the morning.

Sable

Sable is the color of the sand you pressed your feet into the first day you saw the Ocean.

Fallow

Fallow is the color of the dryness in your mouth that soaks your words with nervousness before you open yourself up to vulnerability.

Maize

Maize is the color that floods into your apartment at 7am, blanketing every corner of your room in a new beginning.

Aureolin

Aureolin is the color of the Sun’s promise, the bright and radiant reminder of warmth even in the middle of December.

Citrine

Citrine is the color of the traffic signs and flashing lights you always find yourself counting on long, winding car rides.

Amber

Amber is the color of the honey you tasted on the soft lips of the first person you ever kissed.

Sandstone

Sandstone is the color of your mother’s unconditional, and eternal, love on the days you have done something disappointing or silly.

Persimmon

Persimmon is the color of the fires that ignite within you whenever you reconnect with your hunger and thirst for life.

Coquelicot

Coquelicot is the color you see whenever you think about that summer abroad, it is the color of foreign cars, and foreign love.

Vermilion

Vermilion is the color that seeps into your cheeks whenever you have had too much to drink, whenever you catch someone admiring you from across the room.