Color Name Finder

How to use the color name finder

1. Enter or pick your colour.
2. Read every notation below, updated as you type.
3. Copy whichever one you need.

About this tool

CSS recognises 148 colour keywords, from the obvious ones like red to oddities like papayawhip and rebeccapurple. This finds the nearest keyword to whatever colour you enter.

Nearest is measured as straight distance in RGB, which is simple and predictable but does not match human perception — the eye is far more sensitive to differences in green than in blue. So a colour can be mathematically close to a name and still look clearly different, and the page tells you when the match is not exact rather than pretending it is.

Use the name for readability in a stylesheet only when the match is exact. Otherwise, use the hex value and keep the name as a description.

Common uses

• Describing a colour in words for a design note.
• Checking whether a colour has an exact CSS keyword.
• Learning which named colours sit near your palette.

Frequently asked questions

Are CSS colour names reliable?

Yes — the 148 keywords are fixed by the specification and render identically everywhere.

Why does the nearest name look different from my colour?

Nearest is measured by RGB distance, which does not match how the eye works. When the match is not exact, the name is a rough label rather than an equivalent.

Should I use names or hex in CSS?

Hex or a variable, in almost all cases. Names are convenient in a quick prototype but there are only 148 of them.