Sunsets are frequently described as vermillion. This color is also called "Chinese Red," although the word vermillion is French. In the French Cajun world, there is a Vermilion Parish and a Vermilion Bayou in Louisiana, and many families named Vermilion and Vermillion throughout southern Lousiana.

Beyond the color of Cajuns, there is an energetic bird (quelle apropos!) called a Vermillion Flycatcher that inhabits the southwestern U.S. deserts and other places.

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There are two stories about my own surname. There is the truth, and there is the story that could be true. The truth is that my father was of the South Texas Vermillions, not the McKinney-area Vermillions. The auld story that could be true is best told in person, and you're buying.

In Arizona there are the spectacular Vermilion Cliffs (frequently and apparently inaccurately spelled with two 'l's'). There are towns called Vermillion in North Carolina, and in South Dakota (seat of Vermillion County.) The beatiful Vermillion River forms part of the Mississippi River Bottoms in Minnesota, and seems well worth canoeing one of these summers. Ohio has a town spelled Vermilion. Using that spelling, Canada not only boasts an undoubtedly-lovely place called Vermilion Hills in southern Saskatchewan, there is even a Canadian rock band named Vermillion Skye.

Even in glacial cold, there is a vivid splash of vermillion-colored blooms on the Chilean flamebush.

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Below, in the warm sunlight of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico, there are shades of Vermillion.

However, for all this international history and geography, vermillion itself is not one of the officially supported internet colors. So just admire a sunset's panoply of colors and pick the reddish-orange shade that you consider vermillion!