FAQ Friday: How Does Marble & Granite Get Their Names?

I get asked a lot about why stones are named what they are.  Also, it seems like every distributor names their own material.  It is not illegal in the US to rename a stone, so suppliers will often rename their granite or marble to make it seem "exclusive" to them.  Also, names can change due to different languages.  So if you go to 3 different slab suppliers you may just see the same stone three times with three different names.  It's all very confusing and makes my job harder than it needs to be.  :)

Wild West granite. Other names for Wild West include: Wild West Green, Wild River, Fantasy Green, Key West Green and Wild Green.  And there could be a lot of other names out there for this granite as well!

The original names were in Italian.  Usually the name consists of two parts.  The first part describes the color and the second part describes the name from where the stone was quarried. 

Italian Name-----English Definition
Azzuro---Blue
Breccia---Broken Pieces
Dorato/ D'oro---Gold
Fiore---Flower
Giallo---Yello
Negro/Nero---Black
Perla/Perlato---Pearl
Rosa---Pink
Rosso---Red
Verde---Green
Bianco---White

So here are some examples...
Negro Marquina- Is a black limestone from Marquina, Spain.  So the first part Negro is the color (black) and the second part is where the stone was quarried...Marquina!  Make sense?
To make it confusing, here are some other names you will find it called...Black Marquinia, Negro Bilbao, Negro Markina, Negro Bilbao, Nero Marquina, Prete Marquinia, Preto Marquina.

Here's another one...
Bianco Carrara- Is a white marble from Carrara, Italy.

Now, if only suppliers stuck with this equation...or at least called stone the same name things would be a lot less confusing around here!