Noise mapping is a useful and widespread method to visualise various items like the exposure to noise pollution, statistics of affected population, different noise source contribution analysis, and it is also a useful tool in designing noise-control plans. Some researches have moved a step further, proposing maps to represent the people perception of the acoustic environment. Most of these maps use colours as mere tools to display the spatial variability of acoustic parameters. In this paper the colours associated by interviewed people to different urban soundscapes have been analysed, and the possibility of using meaningful colours to represent the soundscape quality in noise mapping has been examined. https://doi.org/10.1515/noise-2019-0002