Column Name is Perplexing

On one of my queries, my column name is appearing as a reference to another query, then a period, and then the field name. Why is this?

For example:

In my query, I want to pull in "Color". The field "Color" is in another query called "Rainbow". Once run, the column name is showing up as:

Rainbow.Color

Any ideas?

The reason for my question is that it seems odd. I have another pull from the same query, in the same query, and instead of what I've indicated above, it only reads "Color" for the name. I'm getting an error in a query further down the line and I'm wondering if this is the reason? The error message says basically that "Access can't represent the join expression in design view" - that either the field is deleted (no), there is a misspelling (no) or the name has changed (maybe this one?).

Take a good look at your query, there is a chance that you have part of the rainbow query in the new query you are refrencing. If you have a color in 2 tables/queries and are using them both for a new query the provider won't know what one to look at because the computer can't assume that color is the same in both tables (even though they might be) the first part of the statment before the dot operator could be a refrence to the source it's pulling from.

PEOPLE- ID, NAME, AGE
FRIENDS- ID, NAME, AGE, FRIEND_OF

If you want a list of all of someones friends, you will need to have 2 name columns in your resutls. Join FRIEND.FRIEND_OF to PEOPLE.ID, then you will have PEOPLE.NAME the other will be FRIENDS.NAME

Can you post the whole SQL statment or some sample data of what you are trying to do?