Rainbow of Names

The Lesson

        I slide into my seat just as Blue 480 begins talking.
        "I got special permission from the Head to teach you this today," he announces. "In fact, every other Pupil in every other Class is learning the same thing right now. Today, we're going to talk about..." he pauses dramatically. "The Title War!"
        All at once, people begin chattering. I hear things like, "What?" and "Whoa!" and "I don't want to learn about this.."
        Blue 480 holds up his hands, and everyone falls silent at once. He smiles. "Thank you. So, the Title War... quite an interesting subject. I'm sure you all know what its general idea was." Silence. "But for those of you who don't, well, it was about the issue of names. Can anyone tell me what names were like before the War?"
        Blue 502 raises his hand. "The names were very confusing, such as 'Alison,' or 'Mark,' or 'Sophie.' Mostly everyone had a different name. There were millions of names. And they weren't colors."
        "Right," Blue 480 says. "Well, actually, a few people were named colors, such as 'Violet,' or 'Rose.' But they were named.... when were they named?"
        The class collectively says, "At birth."
        Blue 480 nods. "Yes. They were named these names at birth. No one had a number name. And their names didn't often fit their personalities. This led to conflicts. Deception. You see, when someone meets someone else for the first time, they don't know their personality. And when they don't know their personality, they don't know how to act around them, and they can also be deceived into thinking someone is nice, when really, they aren't. So people would sometimes get hurt, physically or emotionally, when these people seem nice and turn out to be mean." He stops for a moment. "These disputes evolved into battles, which merged together into one big war - the Title War. Some people wanted the naming system to stay the same. Some people wanted the deception to stop. The people who wanted the deception to stop won the war. After the war, when babies were born, they were given a number. The first child born after the war was named 1, the second was 2, the third was 3, and so on. They were called this until they were five years old. By then, the parents could adequately know what the child's personality was. So they chose from sixteen names - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Pink, Turquoise, Magenta, Black, White, Gray, Gold, Silver, and Brown. Each color represented a certain personality. Red was active and passionate. Orange was social and determined. Yellow was logical and creative. Green was generous and practical. Blue was honest and peaceful. Indigo was intuitive and spiritual. Violet was emotional and compassionate. Pink was loving and sensitive. Turquoise was ambitious and idealistic. Magenta was unique and imaginative. Black was power-hungry and insecure. White was independent and simple. Gray was conserved and reliable. Silver was insightful and open-minded. Gold was charismatic and optimistic. Brown was comfort-seeking and steady." Blue 480 paused to take a deep breath and let that sink in. "Does anyone here know what that new naming system did?"
        Blue 502 was the only one to answer. "Because everyone was taught what each color symbolized, when you met someone with a certain color name, you knew immediately what their personality was."
        "That is correct," Blue 480 glanced at the DigiClock. "But it seems we've run out of time. We'll continue our discussion tomorrow. Have a good rest of the day, Blue Class - and remember what I taught you."