Colored Nicknames
by alexmotu
Colored Nicknames lets a player style their own name in the tab list and chat with solid colors, gradients or rainbow effects.
What it does
Colored Nicknames is a client-side Fabric mod that changes how a player's own nickname is drawn. Solid colors, linear gradients and animated rainbow effects can be applied, and bold, italic and underline styles can be combined with them. Team prefixes and suffixes sent by the server stay intact, so only the player name takes the custom color.
Players who join groups on a server can be sorted to the top of the tab list, and the mod can hide overhead name tags and the group locator bar entries for them. Settings are managed in an in-game interface and saved locally on the client, so the server needs no matching configuration. It is installed on the player's side alone, so servers need nothing. The code is open source under the MIT License and files exist for 1.21 – 26.2 across 16 release versions, with 1.0.0 for 26.2 as the latest build. Fabric Loader is the only required dependency, and the mod works as soon as it is installed.
Key features
Nickname colors
Solid colors, linear gradients and rainbow animations can be applied to the player's own name.
Text formatting
Bold, italic and underline styles can be combined with the chosen color for the nickname.
Team prefixes preserved
Server-side team prefixes and suffixes keep their original appearance; only the player name is recolored.
Group sorting in the tab list
Configured players are grouped and moved to the top of the tab list automatically.
Overhead name tag hiding
An option hides the overhead name tags of players assigned to custom groups.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
26.x4 of 4 versions with builds
1.21.x12 of 12 versions with builds
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players who want a distinct name color on multiplayer servers that support group sorting, and server communities that organize members into groups.
How it compares
Autonickname is a server-side only Fabric mod for 1.21.5, open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, so players join without installing it. Simple Nicknames runs on Fabric and NeoForge for 1.20.1 – 26.3 and needs the client and server, unlike Colored Nicknames, which is client-side only. TabsCore is server-side only for Fabric and is not open source, with All rights reserved.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colored Nicknames | Fabric | 1.21 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-07-21 |
| Autonickname | Fabric | 1.21.5 | Server-side only | 2025-06-01 |
| Simple Nicknames | Fabric and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-09-18 |
| TabsCore | Fabric | 1.21 – 26.2 | Server-side only | 2026-07-10 |
Questions
Does Colored Nicknames need to be installed on the server?
Which loader and versions does Colored Nicknames support?
Are team prefixes and suffixes affected by the custom color?
In the catalog
Colored Nicknames is one of 5,392 Social mods on ModsFinder, and one of 4,084 Social mods for Fabric. 13,894 mods support Minecraft 26.2.
Similar mods
What the author says
A client-side Fabric mod for Minecraft that lets you customize player nicknames with solid colors, gradients, or rainbow animations. All configurations are managed via an in-game interface. All data is saved locally on your client. No server-side setup is required.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/colored-nicknames
- Owner
- alexmotu
- Published
- 2026-07-21
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-07-21
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15