Color Names

A meticulously curated collection of 31908 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

<p> <a href="#explore-">Explore & search names</a> | <a href="#usage-">Use via JS / API</a> | <a href="#cdn-">CDN</a> | <a href="#color-distribution-">Color distribution</a> | <a href="#color-name-submission-">Submit a new name</a> | <a href="#sources-">Sources</a> | <a href="#costs--sponsors">Sponsors</a> | <a href="#latest-color-names-">Latest color names</a> </p>

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:

bash
npm install color-name-list

Minimal JS example:

javascript
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:

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: 31908 🎉

~0.19% of the RGB color space

Color distribution 🛰

3d representation of color distribution in RGB Space (Preview image of link above)

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

url
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 🔨

shell
npm install && npm run build

See package.json for details.

Java/Kotlin, C#, Rust

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

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 🔖

New colors