Colour Name Finder
Enter a colour to see the nearest named CSS colours and how close each is. Or type part of a name to see the colours that contain it.
Worked examples
An exact match
#e9967a
darksalmon, difference 0
The closest other name is lightsalmon, about 9 away.
About Colour Name Finder
CSS has 148 colour names, from the plain red and blue to tomato, rebeccapurple and lightseagreen. A name is easier to read in code than a hex value, but you rarely know what a given colour is called. This tool finds the named colours closest to the one you enter and says how close each is.
Distance is measured in the Lab colour space, which is designed so that equal distances look equally different to the eye. A distance of zero is an exact match and under 2 is almost impossible to tell apart. You can also type part of a name to browse the colours that contain it. Names that share a colour, such as gray and grey, are shown together.
How to use Colour Name Finder
- Pick a colour or paste its hex code.
- Read the closest names and how close they are.
- Type part of a name to browse matching colours.
- Use the name in your CSS if it is close enough.
Common uses
- Naming a brand colour in documentation
- Replacing a hex code with a readable keyword
- Browsing every colour that contains a word such as blue
- Checking whether a colour is exactly a named one
Frequently asked questions
How many named colours are there?
There are 148 names, which cover 139 different colours because some names are alternative spellings, such as gray and grey or aqua and cyan.
What does the difference number mean?
It is the straight-line distance between the two colours in Lab. Zero is identical, under 2 is almost identical, under 10 is very close and above 25 is clearly different.
Is a named colour as good as a hex code?
They are the same to the browser. Use a name when it matches closely enough and reads clearly, and keep the hex code when the exact value matters.
Why is rebeccapurple in the list?
It was added in 2014 in memory of a young girl who loved the colour purple, and is the colour #663399. It is the newest of the named colours.