Color Names

A meticulously curated collection of 31914 unique color names, built from many sources and thousands of community contributions.

The names of color function like a thread attached to a frightfully slender needle, capable of stitching together our most delicate emotions and memories. When the needle hits the target, we feel either pleasure or empathy. Kenya Hara – White

Explore & search names | Use via JS / API | CDN | Color distribution | Submit a new name | Sources | Sponsors | Latest color names

About 📋

This project aims to assemble the largest possible list of color names, while maintaining high standards for name quality. We have merged numerous lists, resolved duplicate names with different hex values, and adjusted colors where identical values had different names.

A List Apart 🌟

Unlike many other color lists, this collection has a permissive license, is strictly curated, and automations ensure the highest quality:

• Single, comprehensive archive 📚: Digital-friendly color names in one place for design systems, creative tools, data viz, and code.
• No clutter, no clones 🧹: Smart checks catch duplicates and "almost-duplicates" so names and hex values stay unique.
• Consistent naming rules ✍️: Strict formatting for APA Title Case, language-specific articles, normalized "and" forms, and proper apostrophes.
• Valid, unique data ✅: Every entry has a valid hex code, no stray whitespace, and no duplicate names or values.
• Grown by a global community 🌍: Hundreds of contributors keep the list fresh, weird, poetic, and alive.
• Humanly curated 🧠: Human curators review and shape every entry, and we discourage AI‑generated names so the list stays intentional and playful.
• Open and permissive 🪪: Free to use, remix, fork, and build upon. Released under the MIT License, requiring only simple attribution.
• Inclusive naming 🤝: Slurs, hate speech, and protected brand names are not accepted.
• AI‑ready 🤖: High‑quality, human‑made names and rich file formats make the list well‑suited for training AI models.

Name Lists 🧺

This repository ships multiple curated lists:

• Full list: The full collection, including many names merged from historical and external sources. It’s exhaustive and great for exploration, data viz, and long‑tail use cases.
• Best of: A hand‑picked subset of especially playful, evocative, or well‑crafted names, chosen by human curators. Ideal when you want fewer, higher‑signal options.
• Short names: A smaller set of concise names (typically one word or very short phrases), useful where space is limited or brevity matters.

Usage 📖

Install via npm:

npm install color-name-list

Minimal JS example:

import { colornames } from 'color-name-list';

const white = colornames.find((c) => c.hex === '#ffffff');
console.log(white?.name); // => White

See docs/usage-js.md for more examples and utilities.

Other language implementations maintained by the community:

• JS/TS: docs/usage-js.md
• Java/Kotlin: docs/usage-java-kotlin.md
• C#: docs/usage-csharp.md
• Rust: docs/usage-rust.md

Explore 🌍

• Color Picker & Name Search: Click the wheel to discover a color name or search by text.
• Color Picker: Click the colored area or enter a hex value below the name.
• Color Picker II: Move your mouse and scroll to select a color.
• Name Search: Full-text search on the color list.
• Color Distribution: 3D visualization of all color names in various color models.
• X Account: Posts random colors and lets you submit new ones.

Color Name Submission 💌

Submit your own color names by editing the src/colornames.csv file and opening a pull request.

Please review the naming rules before contributing!

Contributing via Git 🫱🏽‍🫲🏻

To contribute via Git, edit the src/colornames.csv file and ensure tests pass locally (npm test).

See the full guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md for naming rules, capitalization, CI behavior, and more.

Color Count: 31914 🎉

~0.19% of the RGB color space

Color distribution 🛰

When creating new color names, it's essential to understand which areas of a color space are crowded and where new names can be added. For example, our API returns the closest RGB color to a given HEX value. To prevent too many colors from mapping to the same name, we strive for an even distribution in color space: Visualization

Consuming the list

The list is available in multiple formats, or you can use the public REST API, making it easy to integrate into your project.

CDN 🌍

All Names (Full list) 📚

The complete list of color names is available in various formats.

JSON / JSON.min / CSV / YML / TOON / JS / XML / HTML / SCSS

Best of Names subset 🏆

The curated "Best of" subset features a hand-picked selection of especially playful, evocative, or well-crafted color names, chosen by human curators.

JSON / JSON.min / CSV / YML / TOON / JS / XML / HTML / SCSS

Short Names subset ✂️

The Short Names subset offers a smaller collection of concise color names, typically one word or very short phrases, ideal for scenarios where space is limited or brevity is essential.

JSON / JSON.min / CSV / YML / TOON / JS / XML / HTML / SCSS

Usage JS 📦

Bundle size note (1.22 MB): For browser usage, consider the public REST API.

By default you get the full list. For leaner subsets, you can import color-name-list/bestof or color-name-list/short, or use the bestOf and short lists via the public REST API.

More examples: see docs/usage-js.md.

API 🃏

To simplify access, we provide a free and public REST API for all color names and other public name lists. Full API code and documentation are available in this repository.

API example

https://api.color.pizza/v1/?values=00f,f00,f00&list=bestOf

API Disclaimer

The API is free and has no usage limits. However, if your commercial app or site generates excessive traffic, you may be asked to become a sponsor.

You are welcome to self-host the API—it's easy to deploy on Heroku and relies only on a few dependencies: Color-Name-API

Building 🔨

npm install && npm run build

See package.json for details.

Java/Kotlin, C#, Rust

• docs/usage-java-kotlin.md
• docs/usage-csharp.md
• docs/usage-rust.md

Sources 🗒

Sources: Names 📇

• Thousands of user submissions Github
• Wikipedia list of named colors (2018-02-23)
• Wada Sanzo's list of named colors
• CSS/HTML color names
• Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours
• ntc.js (chir.ag's Name that Color library)
• xkcd color survey list
• htmlcsscolor.com
• OSX Crayons
• Crayola crayon
• Japanese Twelve Level Cap and Rank System colors
• Thailand weekday colors
• Chinese heavenly creatures colors
• Military Paint
• Olympian god colors
• Model Color Paints: Vallejo
• Fictional Colors (2018-05-09)
• Non English Transliterations: Japanese , Mandarin , Hindi , Persian , Russian , Māori
• Multiple paint, print, nail polish, model paint color lists
• Curated Machine Learning names from Matt DesLauriers and Nathan Kjer
• Team Fortress 2 paint colors

Costs & Sponsors

Sponsors

Past Sponsors

• Colorful Dots 500USD
• krissymashinsky.com 300USD
• color.museum 100CHF
• @tunnckoCore 50USD
• Myriam Aerne 40CHF
• Amin 15USD
• neverything 25USD/month
• Dmitry Iv. 10USD/month

Project Costs USD

One-Time

Item	Expenditure
Logo by Metafizzy	800

Periodic

Item	Expenditure
Color Name API Server	264.60/year
color.pizza domain name	36.16/year
Cloudflare PRO Plan	240/year

Contributors 🦑

• meodai Initiator, maintainer, name creator &, tooling
• Nirazul Name creator & tooling
• Bathos Tooling
• Metafizzy Logo 💖
• Alex Cristache X Account host and communications

Color Namers

Verena the naming overlord , Jess the name wizard , Syl , Stephanie Stutz , Simbiasamba , Jason Wilson , Inês João , Nick Niles , Qwhex , Ichatdelune , basgys , Shelina S. , Trevor Elia , cheesits456 , Sandhya Subram , BerylBucket , Jimmy Fitzback , TLZ , DarthTorus , Carrion , BlueChaos , nachtfunke , Sean Gibbons , Brantley Sibo , Jeff Bronks , Joseph Oloughlin , Nathan Swift , Abra Giddings , Iraj Nelson , Alex Cristache , Evan Gardner , Eliiiiii , Code Ghost , Alex Field , BangHann , James Galvan

Disclaimer 👮🏾‍

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment. We actively remove any offensive, racist, or protected brand names from our list. While we strive to screen out such names, some may inadvertently remain. If you encounter any, please let us know so we can address them promptly.

Latest Color Names 🔖