Since the book's cover was commonly yellow and since the words "emperor" and "yellow" are both pronounced huang in Chinese, it was natural to call it the yellow almanac, a name it retains today.
民國既建，皇曆既非「皇帝」所頒，民間亦能「私造」，而人們叫慣了皇曆，就因皇曆多為黃色封皮，改稱「黃曆」相沿至今。