How to change color of name text?

How do I change the pale lavender name text to a color I can read? I have tried plater and all the standard WOW settings I can find, but still, some players’ names are this unreadable pale lavender, with no box or background.

I may as well hide them if I can’t read them, but surely someone has a solution to this?

I’ve spent hours trying to find a way to make those names legible, but nothing has worked. I am really quite vexed.

I would have attached a screenshot, but I see no way to do that.

P.S. I have moved this to the “Guides UI and Macro” topic, at the insistence of the people in the “Technical Support” support, which is where I originally posted this.

host it on imgur, and preformat the link using the editor. Should look like imgur.com though it might be better to post in Guides > UI and Macro

I was searching for an answer and found a post from this forum from 2023. It has a screen shot of exactly what I am describing.

Here is a similar reddit comment from two months ago. According to the replies, this is an unsolvable problem. Are they correct?

https://www.reddit.com/r/WowUI/comments/1t8tmc9/help_narrowing_down_issue_with_how_player_names/

I installed Platypus, and I have every name plate turned on, but I still see the pale lavender text. See the PC on the fireworks rocket mount? That’s what I mean.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Ff7b6h96jbzbh1.png

Also, I’m happy to move the question to UI & Macros. How do I change the parent topic?

Edit the post, there should be a option to move it. Though it maybe time limited.

To me, the character on the bike has a blue name, which would be a friendly character, not flagged for PVP and not in a guild. Names do change depending on faction, PVP status and guild. Plates depending on class.

The only thing I would describe as lavender is the text showing FF today, that appears to be a mod reporting status.

We’ve gotten sidetracked on what color a name is. Call it blue or pink or green if that makes you happy. What I want to know is, how can I change that color to something bright like white or yellow, or make it have a border or a box around it like all of the other names? I would really like to be able to read it. I find it weird that there is just this one category of names that can’t be modified.

Alright so, what you’ve got is a setup with friendly nameplates enabled, class colored nameplates enabled, and friendly nameplates set to show only names.

The easiest fix is going to be using Plater (if you’re still running it) to disable class colored nameplates. If you’ve gotten rid of Plater then I recommend picking up AdvancedInterfaceOptions and using the CVar browser to disable the class colored nameplates. That should switch them all to white.

There’s also DF Friendly Nameplates if you want more customization.

I have disabled all addons, set the Nameplates settings to default, and set both of the class color settings to be off.

Here is what I see. Everyone’s name is difficult to see.

I installed AdvancedInterfaceOptions, but I didn’t see anything that would allow me to change that color.

https://www.blackgate.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WOW-name-color-02.png

I then re-installed plater, and I can replace almost all of the names with something more legible, but still, the names of opposite faction players are still that color. I guess it’s just not something Blizzard wants me to be able to read.

Yeah, so that screenshot is with nameplates off. Notice how there’s titles and stuff under some of them?

So, if you turn friendly nameplates back on ( Shift-V by default) you should have something similar to before.

If they’re still showing class colors you can turn them off with this:

/console nameplateShowFriendlyClassColor 0

For enemies, it’s:

/console nameplateShowClassColor 0

See below for how to find them in AIO

https://i.imgur.com/1cOKEhF.png

https://www.blackgate.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WOW-name-color-02.png

You can see several characters with nameplates. Nameplates are on.

And all of the names that are not nameplates are same lavender color (or whatever). Class colors are off.

It appears that the characters without nameplates are of the opposing faction (Horde).

Is there a way to make their names have nameplates or a different color? I have looked for a way, without success.

Default key for enemy nameplates is V

Not sure if you linked the wrong image or what, but I’m not seeing any nameplates in it, only names.

Same-faction players with nameplates:

Drfabulous is left of center.
Cancinilla is just right of center.
Lasagnarf is to the far right, just under the minimap.

I have tried another nameplate addon, and it doesn’t change those names, either.

If I could just change the color…

Like I said earlier, those aren’t nameplates those are simply names. Names cannot be customized, nameplates can.

You need to enable nameplates (v for enemy, shift-v for ally, ctrl-v for both) and enable the always show nameplates option so they’ll be enabled outside of combat. You’ll get a message on screen when toggling them on and off.

Then you can customize whether or not they have class colors enabled with the CVars I provided earlier and nameplate addons.

[added]
Friendly Names:

https://i.imgur.com/dJsWeuY.jpeg

Friendly Nameplates (with class colors enabled):

https://i.imgur.com/4wyF6hu.jpeg

No, they are nameplates. I have set it up so that players (should) always have nameplates. I have already enabled nameplates for both allies and enemies.

Also, I didn’t see anything in the CVars that made any difference at all to the name or nameplate display of opposite faction characters.

At this point, I think it’s just not possible. Thanks for being so persistent in your attempts to help.

The images you have posted show character names that are in the 3D world and not modifiable by addons. Nameplates (which are modifiable to a degree) are additional to these, hold extra information like health bars, aura icons etc. and sit on top of the 3D world.

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