Colored names in Call of Duty - color code guide

All Call of Duty games built on the Quake 3 engine support colored text using the ^ symbol followed by a number. This works in player names, chat messages, and server names.

How It Works

Type ^ followed by a digit to change the color of everything after it. You can use multiple codes in one name to create multi-colored text.

For example, typing ^1Red^7NameRedName as your name makes "Red" appear red and "Name" appear white.

Color Codes

Setting Your Name

Open the console with ~ and type:

/name ^1Red^7Name

To make it permanent, add to your config_mp.cfg:

seta name "^4[Clan]^7Player"

You can also type color codes directly in the name field in the multiplayer options menu.

Differences Between Games

CoD1, CoD:UO, CoD2

Colors work everywhere - scoreboard, chat, kill feed, server browser. Full support for ^0 through ^9.

The ^8 code is special in CoD:UO and CoD2: it renders as the map's team accent color. On Allied maps it's dark green, on German maps it's dark red, on British maps it's dark blue. In CoD1 vanilla, ^8 is undefined and may appear white.

CoD4: Modern Warfare

CoD4 is different - colors are stripped from the scoreboard and chat. Your colored name only appears in join/disconnect messages and server-side tools. Setting a colored name still works via console, but you won't see the colors in-game the way you do in CoD1/CoD2.

CoD: World at War

WaW fully supports colored names in the scoreboard, chat, and kill feed - similar to CoD1/CoD2. Clan tags also support color codes.

Tips and Tricks

Invisible Name

Using ^0 (black) for your entire name makes it nearly invisible against dark HUD backgrounds in CoD1/CoD2. Not truly invisible, but very hard to read. This doesn't work in CoD4 since colors are stripped.

Rainbow Name

Prefix each character with a different code: ^1R^2a^3i^4n^5b^6o^7wRainbow

Reset to White

Use ^7 to return to the default white color after a colored section: ^1[CLAN]^7 PlayerName[CLAN] PlayerName