Periwinkle, Thistle and Burnt Sienna were my favorite crayons. In my coloring days (which I miss madly) I remember these colors the most. Where did these names come from?

Periwinkle
Who looked at the dusty blue color and said, “Periwinkle! That’s it!” Maybe the crayon namer had a friend called Perry Winkle, who knows?

Thistle
Just look at it and relax. It’s a pinkish-lavender color named after the plant. And I’m all for naming stuff after plants. We named our oldest daughter Holly after the berry that decorates the halls at Christmas. And she better be glad, because I could have named her Thistle.

Burnt Sienna
Since sienna is already brown, I’m not sure why they had to add “burnt” to it. It’s a given like when I bake fish sticks. They always come out burnt but I don’t call them Burnt Fish Sticks. They’re just fish sticks in our house.

To add to the confusion, I drive a Toyota Sienna. But it’s gray. Perhaps if Toyota called it Gray Slate it’d make sense.