Color Names: Where They Come From and How to Find the Name of Any Color

Color names are human-readable labels attached to particular colors or color ranges, such as red, navy, coral, teal, or rebeccapurple. Some names are formally defined in systems such as CSS, while others come from artists, paint manufacturers, Pantone libraries, product catalogs, historical usage, or crowdsourced color lists. A name makes a color easier to discuss, but it is not a technical specification unless it is paired with an exact value or a defined color reference.

Why do colors have names?

Humans named colors long before digital color systems existed.

Basic words such as red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white describe broad color categories. More specific names come from objects, plants, minerals, foods, materials, or places associated with a particular appearance.

Examples include coral, salmon, lavender, olive, chocolate, turquoise, ivory, and gold.

A color name is useful because saying "navy blue" is easier in conversation than reading out several numerical channel values.

The problem is that people do not always mean the same color when they use the same name.

CSS color names

CSS defines 148 named colors that browsers recognize directly.

Instead of writing #FF0000 you can write red. Both identify the same CSS color.

Other familiar CSS names include blue, orange, navy, teal, coral, salmon, gold, and tomato.

The CSS named-color collection developed from the X11 color list, with rebeccapurple added in 2014 in memory of Rebecca Meyer, the daughter of CSS expert Eric Meyer. It is defined as #663399.

These names are standardized when used as CSS keywords, which means a browser knows the exact sRGB value associated with each one.

You can browse them, along with thousands of other named colors, in the list of colors.

Why the same color name can mean different colors

A color name does not have one universal definition outside a particular system.

Gray is a good example. In CSS, gray is #808080. In the X11 color list, gray is #BEBEBE. Those are visibly different colors despite sharing the same name.

Green provides another example. CSS defines green as #008000, while X11 green is #00FF00. In CSS, #00FF00 is named lime.

This is why the source of a color name matters.

Color names beyond CSS

CSS is a small naming system compared with the number of colors humans can distinguish or digital systems can encode.

Pantone has its own proprietary color libraries and names. Paint manufacturers create names for wall paints and coatings. Fashion and product companies develop names for seasonal colors.

There are also crowdsourced color-name databases containing thousands of entries.

A single HEX value can therefore have several possible names depending on which database you search.

Conversely, a familiar word such as "sage," "burgundy," or "sand" describes a broad family rather than one agreed numerical color.

How a color name lookup works

Suppose you have #2F6F68 but do not know what to call it.

A color name lookup compares that value with a database of named colors and identifies the closest entry.

If the exact HEX value exists in the naming database, the lookup returns that exact named reference.

Most arbitrary HEX values, however, do not have an exact named entry. The tool therefore finds the nearest named color.

How the nearest color name is calculated

The reliable way to find a nearby named color is to compare colors in a perceptual color space such as CIELAB.

The target color and the colors in the naming database are represented in Lab, then their differences are measured with Delta E.

A smaller Delta E means the two colors are closer.

The lookup on this site uses CIEDE2000, which accounts for differences in lightness, chroma, and hue more carefully than simple Euclidean distance.

The closest database entry becomes a reasonable name for the target.

That does not mean the target color has acquired an official name. It means that particular named color is the nearest match in the database being searched.

Exact names vs closest names

This distinction matters when using color naming tools.

Imagine that a database contains a named teal at #008080. You search for #01817F.

The two colors are very close, but they are not identical.

A lookup will return "teal" as the nearest recognizable name. The actual specification remains #01817F.

For design and development, preserve the numerical value rather than replacing it with the nearest name unless that is specifically what you want.

Generating names for new colors

Sometimes the goal is not to find an existing standardized name. You may simply want a useful descriptive name for a new palette.

A color name generator creates labels that are easier to remember than raw numerical values.

This is useful when organizing palette concepts, moodboards, product variants, illustrations, or design tokens.

Treat generated names as labels rather than technical color definitions.

Color names in accessibility and alt text

Color names make descriptions easier for people to understand.

For example, "a dark teal button" communicates more immediate visual information than #115E59 to a general reader.

Color descriptions are also useful when color is relevant to meaningful image content described in alt text.

However, naming a color does not make a design accessible. Foreground and background contrast, non-color cues, and the broader context still matter. See WCAG color contrast explained.

Color names in brand guidelines

Brand guidelines should not rely on names such as "Brand Blue" or "Corporate Red" alone.

The name is useful as an internal label, but it should be accompanied by technical specifications appropriate to the intended media:

• HEX for digital use
• RGB for screen applications
• CMYK for process-print workflows under the required print conditions
• Pantone references where a specific spot-color specification is required

If you begin with a digital value, hex to pantone provides the nearest Pantone references. Important Pantone matches should still be confirmed with a current physical guide and a proof.

Why color names are not specifications

Words are useful for communication, but production systems need defined values.

"Forest green" could refer to several different dark greens. "Gold" might mean #FFD700 on a website, a muted yellow-brown in a brand palette, or an actual metallic spot ink in print.

The name alone cannot distinguish those cases.

For digital work, keep the HEX, RGB, or other defined color value. For print, use the required CMYK profile or physical spot-color specification.

The name sits beside those values as a human-readable description.

How to find the name of any color

If you already know the HEX value, enter it into the color name lookup to find the nearest named color.

If you are starting from something visible rather than a known code, use the color picker to select the color and obtain its digital value first. For a color in a photo or screenshot, image to palette pulls it out and names it.

You can then compare that value with the list of colors or use the color name generator when you want a descriptive label rather than an existing name.

Keep the original numerical value alongside whatever name you choose. That prevents ambiguity when the color moves between designers, developers, printers, clients, or brand documentation.

FAQ

How do I find the name of a HEX color?

Enter the HEX value into the color name lookup. If there is no exact named entry, the result is the closest named color based on color difference rather than an official name for that exact HEX value.

How many named colors are there?

There is no universal total because different systems maintain different lists. CSS defines 148 named colors, while paint companies, Pantone systems, and crowdsourced databases contain many more names.

Are CSS color names the same as X11 color names?

Not always. For example, CSS gray is #808080, while X11 gray is #BEBEBE, and CSS green is #008000 while the brighter #00FF00 is called lime in CSS.

Should brand guidelines use color names?

Color names are useful labels but should not be the only specification. Pair brand color names with defined HEX, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone references for the intended digital and print workflows.