What Color Is Your Name? A New Synesthesia Tool Will Show You.

Here’s your chance to see how people with synesthesia perceive letters and numbers

Images: Bernadette Sheridan

For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen letters and numbers as colors. It’s a form of synesthesia called grapheme-color synesthesia, and for me, this translating from symbols to colors happens most often with names.

When I meet new people, I forget their name immediately. Don’t get me wrong, I hear the name, but my mind is distracted. In my head, I am counting the number of letters in the name, and visualizing the colors of each letter.

Your name may be Emily, but to me, you’re a bright, sunny swath of five letters with an “E” and an “I.” When I meet you again later, I may think your name is Emily or Jille or Ellie. Those three names “look” remarkably similar to someone who operates as I do — they all have five letters, they all include the letters “i,” “l,” and “e.”

In my head, Emily, Jille, and Ellie are remarkably similar.

What is synesthesia?

Synesthesia is a rare sensory trait shared by about 4% of the population, and it comes in many forms. People who “see” or associate…