ZumaTools

Color Name Finder

Pick or type any color to see its closest named matches, or search the full list of named colors below.

Nearest named colors

Closest: Royal Blue

Each swatch shows your color (left) next to the named color (right). ΔE is the perceptual distance in CIELAB — under 2 is barely noticeable. Click a row to copy the named color’s hex code.

155 of 155 colors — click any swatch to copy its hex code.

More color tools: Color Converter, Color Palette Generator, Image Color Picker and Color Blindness Simulator.

Processed on your device — nothing is sent anywhere.

How it works

  1. Pick a color with the picker or type a value such as #2563eb — RGB triples like 37, 99, 235 also work.
  2. Read the nearest named colors, ranked by perceptual distance; an Exact match label appears when your color has an official name.
  3. Use the search box to browse all named colors and click any swatch to copy its hex code to your clipboard.

Frequently asked questions

How does the color name finder choose the closest name?
Your color and every named color are converted from RGB into the CIELAB color space, which is designed so that numeric distance roughly matches how different two colors look to the human eye. The tool then ranks all names by that distance and shows the nearest ones, so the top result is the name a person would most likely give your color.
What does the ΔE number next to each match mean?
ΔE (delta E) is the perceptual distance between your color and the named color in CIELAB space. A value of 0 is an exact match, values under about 2 are barely distinguishable in normal viewing, and anything above 10 is a clearly different color. It is a quick way to judge how honest it is to call your color by that name.
Which color names does the tool know?
The list contains all named colors from the CSS specification — from Alice Blue to Yellow Green, including Rebecca Purple — plus classic artist and design names such as vermilion, cerulean, amber, sepia and burgundy. That is roughly 150 names in total, each stored with its standard hex value.
Can I use these names directly in CSS code?
The CSS names can be used as keywords once you remove the spaces and lowercase them, so Cornflower Blue becomes cornflowerblue in a stylesheet. The classic names like cerulean or burgundy are not CSS keywords, so for those copy the hex code instead — clicking any swatch puts it on your clipboard.
Is the color I enter sent to a server?
No. The name list is embedded in the page and all distance math runs as plain JavaScript in your browser, so nothing you pick or type is transmitted anywhere. The tool keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

About this tool

This color name finder answers a simple question: what is this color called? Pick a color with the native picker or paste a hex code from a design file, and the tool instantly lists the closest named colors, each with a side-by-side swatch so you can see exactly how near the match is. When your color equals a named value, an Exact match label confirms it; otherwise the ΔE figure tells you how far off the nearest name is.

Matching happens in the CIELAB color space rather than raw RGB. Two colors can be close in RGB numbers yet look clearly different, because RGB is built around how screens emit light, not how eyes perceive it. Converting to LAB first means the distances the tool ranks by correspond to visible difference, so the suggested names are the ones a person would actually agree with. All of this is local arithmetic in your browser — the roughly 150 names ship with the page, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed.

It also works in reverse. The searchable grid below the matcher shows every named color at once: type a fragment like “sea” or “rose” to filter the list live, and click any swatch to copy its hex code. This is handy when you half-remember a name, when you want a starting color that already has a memorable label, or when writing documentation where “slate gray” communicates better than #708090.

Typical uses include naming brand shades in a style guide, labeling colors in design handoff notes, and finding a readable CSS keyword close to an arbitrary sampled value. If you grabbed the color from a photo, our Image Color Picker extracts it first; the Color Converter translates the result into RGB or HSL, and the Color Palette Generator builds a matching scheme around it.

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