It's hardly conclusive, but there are instances of the Soviets using one word code names in Afghanistan. The following are mentioned in Rodric Braithwaite's excellent "Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89, ISBN 1846680549 )
Magistral (English translation Highway)
Raduga (English translation Rainbow (really!))
Typhoon
By contrast though, the actual assault on the Presidential Palace in Kabul was codenamed Storm 333.
There's also some additional info on Wikipedia, where it's stated that the Americans at one point disliked using colours in code names (it's unclear as to whether that is still the case), whilst apparently the French currently favour the use of colours or the names of animals.
Full text here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_name