Is the naming of colours subjective?

How about this for the name of a colour midway between purple and maroon:

Puroon - a word invented by 7 year old DGD the other week.
It described it exactly.

I bought some yarn which is 'petrol' I colour.

Actually, nothing like petrol, it is a lovely shade of dark turquoisey blue.

What fascinating answers ?

I love colours. I have a good colour eye....can tell minute differences in things that others say are the same colour. I love it that there are different names for them all...as they are different

To me teal is greeny blue ie more green than blue whereas turquoise is bluey green (more blue with a green tinge..)
I have a coat which I call green and DH calls blue. I think it’s teal.

Yes, I believe the naming of colours is subjective. The minute you learn a foreign language you notice that colours are defined differently.

As a young woman my hair would be described in English as chestnut with copper glints - brown in other words.

In Spain I was called "La Rubia" the blonde woman.

My Italian teacher maintained that Italian has no concept for the colour we call maroon, as brown is marrone in Italian.

Here in Denmark people tend to call shades blue, which I regard as green.

DH and I can never agree on some shades of blue and grey.

Mamma66
I go with your view of Teal but as with 'beauty' colour too is in the eye of the beholder.

Teal does seem to be more green than blue nowadays. Was looking for duvet covers on the green theme. Saw a pattern liked but was described as real. Only on reading reviews where there were loads of comments about the colour being green. Ordered and delighted I did. Green!

We once had a (light/pale) green carpet, but OH insisted it was beige!

That's why printers and other experts in design and colour use the Pantone system. Each shade on the colour wheel is assigned a number so all concerned know they're talking about the same colour or shade. Then is doesn't matter if some call it blue, green, teal or whatever.

Personally I can’t see any blue in teal, but I often disagree over pinks/reds with my daughter, and a room I have which is painted in F&B pelt, which I see as very deep aubergine, she sees as black.

Teal is a bluey green colour .

Love teal. I have used Dylon Emerald green and it's definitely teal! It's given a whole new lease of life to tired looking pale but good condition sheets, pillowcases, crochet cover and towels.

I think responses colour are often subjective. I once described something as "redder" than something else that was also red. Everyone else understood exactly what I meant but DH started a lecture on chroma, hue and saturation* ?. Thing is, he's red/green colour blind, so he doesn't see colours, reds in particular, as other people see them anyhow.

*All very interesting if you need to know.

Colour also varies from printer to printer and computer to iPad

Not to mention different lighting.

What my Mother saw as red, was distinctly pink to me. So colour is in the eye of the beholder.

I have some bedroom curtains that were described as teal. They are definitely a shade of blue. I like them anyway!

In French, there is a proverb that states that "one should NEVER discuss taste or colour". It intimates that it is all very subjective, e.g. while turquoise is emphatically blue to me, it is definitely green to DH...

I have often wondered about how we see colour , which comes down to the rods and cones in the structure of the retina.
I mean, if I say something to me is sky blue for instance, does everyone else see the same shade of blue as I do?
Greens are always dicey, being made up of two colours , so maybe to some that teal cushion would look to me as the dark turquoise that I consider it as, and to you, Mamma66 as green .
Does it make a difference if you are colour blind with a colour like teal ?

This article is fascinating - the Candoshi people don’t even have the concept of colour
www.sapiens.org/language/color-perception/

It's Bathsheba's colour to me. But people do see colours differently, remember the black/blue or gold dress? DH and I disagree quite often on what is blue and what is green!

Is it not a bluey-green?

Teal is my favourite colour too, Baggs.

Slightly off piste. Years ago, due to medication I was taking, I had to get my colour vision checked annually at the eye hospital.

The test consisted of about thirty balls in shades of every hue, which had to be graded in colour and tone. There were only slight differences between them.
The opthamologist said she had never seen them graded so quickly and accurately.
So to answer your question, teal is green.

I have some painted furniture in one room, the colour I chose was teal, I really dislike most shades of green, but love this, it looks so good with deep purple.