CSS colour names

Where these names come from

CSS lets you write a colour by name instead of a code, for example color: steelblue. The list above is taken from the named-colour table in the W3C's CSS Color Module Level 4 and contains 148 entries. Browsers treat the names as case-insensitive, so SteelBlue and steelblue are the same.

The first 16 names, such as red, navy and teal, date from HTML 4. Most of the rest were inherited from the X11 colour list used by Unix graphical systems and adopted by early browsers, which is why some names are inconsistent. One was added much later: rebeccapurple (#663399) was added to CSS in 2014 in memory of Rebecca Meyer, the daughter of the CSS author Eric Meyer.

Duplicates and spellings

148 names do not mean 148 different colours. Several names share a value:

• aqua and cyan are both #00ffff; fuchsia and magenta are both #ff00ff.
• Every grey name exists in both spellings, so grey and gray, darkslategrey and darkslategray, and so on, are interchangeable. There are 14 grey or gray names in total, covering 7 colours.

In all, 18 names share their value with at least one other name, leaving 139 distinct colours.

Names that surprise people

• darkgray (#a9a9a9) is lighter than gray (#808080). In the X11 list, gray was lighter; when CSS adopted the HTML value of #808080 for gray, darkgray kept its X11 value.
• green is #008000, a fairly dark green. The pure green channel at full strength, #00ff00, is called lime.
• There is also a keyword transparent and the special value currentcolor. Neither is a fixed colour, so they are not in the table.

Should you use colour names in production?

Names are handy for prototypes, teaching and quick debugging, because outline: 2px solid red is easy to spot and type. In a real design system, HEX or RGB values stored in variables are usually better: brand colours rarely match a named colour exactly, and a code makes the exact value obvious to everyone who reads it. If you want to know which named colour is closest to your brand colour, paste it into the colour picker.

Frequently asked questions

How many CSS colour names are there?

148 in the CSS Color Module Level 4 table, which includes both spellings of the grey names. They cover 139 distinct colours.

Are colour names supported in every browser?

Yes. All current browsers support the full list.

Can I use colour names in design tools?

Some design tools accept CSS names, but many expect HEX. Copy the HEX value from the table to be safe.