The band name is a combination of German "dir", French "en" and English "grey" and was thought to mean , the Japanese translation was used as the name of their fanclub's magazine. They wanted to convey a musical image that was neither black nor white, so they picked grey. In an early interview, vocalist Kyo explained that he knew the name before the band was formed. Durig the WOWOW Special in 2020, Kaoru elaborates that they took the name from another band that was famous around that time. This band was most likely Lareine, who had released a song called "Dir en gray" in 1995. The song starts with the line "", with the Latin part being a correct translation of the Japanese part. In a later interview, Kaoru explained that "at the time we chose the band name, it had some meaning but right now it doesn't express the band anymore, so it has come to not mean anything specific. We chose the band name because it sounded right, and it also reflects an image that probably doesn't exist elsewhere."