The Official Register of Color Names and Other Color Registries, Explained

The Official Register of Color Names (ORCN) is an independent, private registry that records one name for each digital HEX color and issues a digital certificate and a color page. It isn't a government body. Like every private color registry, including this one, it gives you a named record in its own list, not legal ownership of the color. If you found this page by searching ORCN's name: Official Color Registry, the site you're on, is a different and unrelated registry, and this guide explains how the two, and two others that show up in search, actually differ.

What a private color registry is

A digital color is a HEX code: six characters that set the red, green and blue values of a pixel. There are 16,777,216 of them. A color registry is a company that keeps a list matching some of those codes to names, and sells people the chance to add a name of their own.

No government agency registers color names for the public. The closest things to an authority are systems that name colors for their own purposes: the CSS specification for web browsers, Pantone for print and textile production, paint makers for their own product lines. We cover those in who names colors. Private registries sit outside all of them. Each one is a database run by a company, with its own rules about what you can name, whether names must be unique, and how long an entry lasts.

ORCN puts it plainly. Its store FAQ says: "ORCN operates as an independent private registry. It is not a government authority, educational institution, international standards body, trademark registry, or other official authority." source Its store page adds that "official" means the name "becomes the single authoritative entry for that color code within this Register." source Our own Registry Standards say the same kind of thing about us: "official" describes the record we keep, not outside accreditation of any kind.

What no color registry can give you

Whichever registry you pick, some things are off the table:

• Ownership. Nobody can stop anyone else from using a color because they named it in a private registry.
• A trademark. Trademarks come from government trademark offices and protect a color only as a brand signal for particular goods or services. ORCN's FAQ uses Tiffany Blue as its example. source Naming a color in a registry is not that process.
• A universal name. Each registry's list is its own. The same HEX code can have one name at ORCN, a different one at ColorMark and a third here, and none of them overrides the others or changes what a browser, a paint company or Pantone calls it.

What you do get is real, if modest: a dated record in that registry, a certificate, usually a public page you can share, and a name that means something to you and the person you give it to. Our guide to whether you can legally own a color goes further into the trademark side.

The registries that show up when you search

Searches for "the official register of color names" and similar phrases return several different companies. Here's what each one's own pages said when we checked them on November 11, 2026. Prices and policies change, so follow the links for the current version. We haven't rated anyone, and this isn't a ranking.

A few things in that table are worth reading twice.

Permanent vs. term-based. ORCN and Official Color Registry both treat an entry as a lasting record. ColorMark works more like a domain name: its FAQ says a standard registration lasts a year, and if it isn't renewed "the color will expire and become available for the public to rename." source The Color Canon is different again. Its about page is written as tongue-in-cheek satire, and its rules make every name a running auction, so your name stays only until someone outbids you. source If you're buying a gift meant to last, the term matters more than the headline price.

What "unique" means. ORCN guarantees that the name is unique in its register, and treats names that differ only by punctuation, spacing or capitalization as the same name. source Official Color Registry makes the HEX code unique: once a code is registered nobody else can register that exact code here, but two different colors can share a name, because a name like "Grandma's Garden" is personal. Neither approach is wrong. They answer different questions.

The word "own." ColorMark's home page says "If you can see it, then you can own it." source ORCN's FAQ says having a color listed in its register "doesn't mean you 'own' that color or its name." source The Color Canon's terms say an amendment "does not convey ownership of a color." source Whatever the marketing says, no private registry can give you legal ownership of a color, and we don't claim to either.

How to choose a color registry

Since none of them can give you legal rights, the useful comparison is about the record and the gift. A checklist you can run in a couple of minutes on any registry's site:

• Is the price shown before checkout, and is it a one-time fee or a term that renews?
• What happens if you don't renew, or if someone else pays more? For a memorial or a new-baby gift, you probably want a record that doesn't expire.
• What exactly is unique, the code or the name? If you want nobody else to register your exact shade in that registry, look for one code, one entry.
• Is there a public page the recipient can visit and share, and can the certificate be looked up later by an ID?
• Is there a written refund policy with a clear window?
• Does the site say plainly what it isn't: not a government body, not a trademark? A registry that's clear about that is easier to trust on everything else.

How Official Color Registry works

Here's our own setup, from our Claim, Standards and Refund Policy pages:

• Price: $29.99 for one HEX code. Optional add-ons are a print-ready 300 DPI file (+$9) and a Gold Edition certificate design (+$6). Nothing physical is shipped.
• What you get: a certificate you can view, print or save as a PNG or PDF, a permanent Registry ID in the format OCR-YYYY-NNNNNN, and a public entry anyone can find through Browse or Lookup. See what's on the certificate.
• Uniqueness: each exact HEX code can be registered once, first come, first served. Names may repeat. The CSS named colors (like #808080, gray) are reserved and can't be registered.
• Refunds: within 30 days of purchase, no questions asked. We remove the registration and the HEX code becomes available again.
• What it isn't: we're an independent, privately run registry, not a government agency or standards body, and registering a color name doesn't give you a trademark or ownership of the color.

The step-by-step version, from choosing a shade to wording the dedication, is in how to register a color name. Before you start, you can check whether a shade is still free: every color page, such as #5A86AD, the dusty blue at the top of this guide, shows whether that exact code has been registered.

The short version

The Official Register of Color Names is a real, private registry with its own list, its own certificate and a 90-day refund window. Official Color Registry is a separate private registry with a per-code record, a $29.99 price and 30-day refunds. ColorMark sells term-based registrations, and The Color Canon runs a satirical name auction. None of them makes you the owner of a color, and each keeps its own list, so the same color can have a different name in each. Pick the one whose rules fit the gift you have in mind.