UPDATE: Trello now includes this capability ‘out of the box’.
On a desktop or laptop browser, simply click the label colour—it will expand to include the name of the label.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Trello.
I use Trello pretty much exclusively on Google Chrome, as there are plenty of plugins written to extend its capabilities; far more than for Firefox, which surprises me a little.
One of my favourites is Scrum for Trello, which allows me to add Agile story points very simply. My new favourite is this: Card Color Titles for Trello.
Default labels
In Trello you may set an unlimited number of labels. Originally, there were only six, organised in the order of the original Apple logo.
Here are the labels that Trello themselves use for their development board.

When applied to cards, the labels appear as coloured bars at the top of each card.

The problem is, and particularly now with unlimited labels, it can be difficult to remember what each colour means—especially if you use different labels on different boards.
Card color titles for Trello
That’s where the Card Color Titles for Trello plugin comes in: it adds the name of the label to the label.

I’ve been using this for the last week and it has been so useful, particularly at work where we have labels for MoSCoW prioritisation. It has made re-ordering cards so much easier and quicker.
It’s definitely an extension to add if you use Trello on Chrome: Card Color Titles for Trello on Chrome web store.
Wow, That’s great. I also wrote something similar on my blog!
http://jsdecorator.com/blog/post/fix-trello-limited-lable-color-issue
Just wanted to share a quick thanks after finding your blog post on a Google search for how to enhance usability of my team’s Trello board! Thanks 🙂
Thanks so much. Super helpful!
yea! Did a search looking specifically for this thinking: surely I’m not the only one who wants this. Thanks for the heads up!
This is perfect! Love it. Nicely designed and works perfectly.
A big thanks for this tip.
This was the feature for which I was hating trello.
Dont know why doesnt Trello has this as default feature.
This is now a core part of Trello, just click on any label and all the label names appear, click again and they all disappear.
I turned labels on by accident and found this post trying to work out how I did it. Give it a try!
Thanks Tom. Yeah, I spotted that too recently. I keep accidentally switching them off too when I click on the label by accident.
Amazing.
Not very intuitive though, if I didn’t read your comment I would not know about that.
I was already blaming Trello because I use the app for Desktop, can’t use it on chrome.
Anyways thanks! 🙂
Thanks for explaining this , i mistakenly clicked the label and lost the titles – After reading this blog and your comment , got to know how easy it is to hide / un-hide the titles on labels – Got the titles back on my trello board , thanks again
Thank you sooo much Gareth!
This is so very useful.
Best wishes,
Richard
Hi,
When click on the trello label, title will appear and click again it will disappear. But I am not sure what I’ve clicked, now I can’t see the label anymore 🙁
Any idea how to enable the label back? Thanks.
Clicking on the label should toggle whether the text shows or not.
Have you tried hard refreshing your browser? (Ctrl+F5 for Windows, Command+R for Mac).
If that doesn’t work, I would switch off all browser add-ons/extensions, try it again and if it works then start adding back your add-ons/extensions and test after each one. That would identify if there is a browser add-on/extension clash.
I hope that helps.
The extension stopped working but this one is better, still working and updated (no affiliation with me at all): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/trelabels-for-trello/annjdmkbhchmobehkcfilecnlhibedbj
Very helpful, thanks for updating with the note at the top!