was already implemented in the cakephp ACL
( not Auth component )
its just, they were for ACL
( but still can use for others i guess )
( i meet the same problem, but the problem was in ACL )
( where User->Ali and Admin->Ali, not unique problem )

see the ACL API
you will see the id( ), getparent( ), getpath( ) and getchild( )

then modify the id( $alias )
into id( $alias, $smelly )

where $smelly is the array of path

base on your
findPath(array(‘tv’, ‘color’), ‘name’)

i guess it will be about
alias( ‘ tv ‘, array( ‘ color ‘ ) );
it will return the integer which is ‘foreign_key’

what bout the ‘name’ ?
well in the ACL its fixed as ‘foreign_key’
so no need to put a name field for it

finally,
make something like
getpath( alias( ‘ tv ‘, array( ‘ color ‘ ) ) );
will do the trick i guess

p/s:
this is just a suggestion
i never implement or try those code above yet
but i do believe it can be done…