17060 color-names

A handpicked list of 17060 unique color names from various sources and thousands of user submissions. Try it yourself or read the full list.

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

About 📋

The aim of this project is to create as large a list of color names as possible. We've merged various lists, modified the names when there were duplicates with different hex values, and shifted the colors a bit when there were identical colors with different names.

Submit a color via form 🌈 / or twitter 🐦

Make sure to read the naming rules before you contribute!

color count: 17060 🎉

(~0.10% of all RGB Colors)

Color distribution 🛰

When coming up with new color names, it is vital to know what spots in a certain color-space are crowded and where there is still room for new colors. For example: Our API returns the closest RGB color to a given HEX value. To avoid too many colors snapping to the same name, we aim to distribute the colors evenly in the color space: Visualization

PS: You can choose between different color spaces on the bottom right.

Usage 📖

Installation Node.js 📦

npm install color-name-list --save

or yarn add color-name-list

CDN 🌍 JSON / CSV / YML / JS

API 🃏

https://color-names.herokuapp.com/v1/{{hexvalue without the #}},{{more comma separated values}}

Single Color

curl https://color-names.herokuapp.com/v1/212121

{
  "colors": [{
    "name": "Lead",
    "hex": "#212121",
    "rgb": {"r":33, "g":33, "b":33},
    "distance": 0, // its an exact match
    "luminance": 22.062320231562225,
    "requestedHex": "#212121",
  }]
}

Multiple Colors

curl https://color-names.herokuapp.com/v1/212121,060606,ff0012,550055,123456

All Named Colors

curl https://color-names.herokuapp.com/v1/

In this case colors is not an object but an array of objects sorted by color-name

Usage JS ⌨

Exact Color

import namedColors from 'color-name-list';

let someColor = namedColors.find(color => color.hex === '#ffffff');
console.log(someColor.name); // => white

let someNamedColor = namedColors.find(color => color.name === 'Eigengrau')
console.log(someColor.hex); // => #16161d

Closest Named Color

Since there are 16581375 possible RGB colors, you might use a library to help you find the the closest named color.

import namedColors from 'color-name-list';
import nearestColor from 'nearest-color';

// create Object needed for
let colors = {};

namedColors.forEach(color => {
  colors[color.name] = color.hex
});

nearestColorName = nearestColor.from(colors);

// get closest named color
nearestColorName('#f1c1d1'); // => Fairy Tale

Note: In this example we are using nearest-color. it is not the most accurate method, but by far the quickest since it looks for the nearest RGB neighbor. If you are looking for something visually more accurate, you can use a library returning the color with the closest DeltaE based on the Lab color-space.

Building 🔨

npm install && npm run build

See package.json for more.

Sources 🗒

Sources: Names 📇

• Thousands of user submissions Twitter/Google Docs/Github
• Wikipedia list of named colors (2018-02-23)
• CSS/HTML color names
• ntc.js
• xkcd color survey list
• htmlcsscolor.com
• OSX Crayons
• Crayola crayon
• Thailand weekday colors
• Chinese heavenly creatures colors
• Military Paint
• Olympian god colors
• Model Color Paints: Vallejo
• Non English Transliterations: Japanese, Mandarin, Hindi, Persian, Russian
• Multiple paint, print, nail polish, model paint color lists

Sources: Color 🎨

• 12-Bit & 8-Bit color palettes
• Pico-8 color palette
• Some Android Arts palettes

Contributors 🦑

• meodai Initiator, Maintainer, Name Creator & Tooling
• Verena Hundreds of names!!
• Syl Name creator
• Stephanie Stutz Name creator
• Simbiasamba Name creator
• Jason Wilson Manual Merging of some lists
• Inês João Mostly Portuguese names
• Nirazul Name Creator & Tooling
• Nick Niles Name Creator
• Metafizzy Logo Sponsor 💖

Disclaimer 👮🏾‍

In the process we try to remove all names that are offensive or racist, as well as protected brand names. As some of the color names come from other lists, some bad ones might slip in. Please report them, they will be removed as quickly as possible.