How to use it
Set a color with the input or the sliders. The closest named color appears next to yours for a direct visual comparison, with its ΔE2000 distance, followed by the next-closest names. Tap any result to copy its hex.
Perceptual, not RGB
Color difference is measured in a perceptually-uniform space, never as raw sRGB distance — the same principle behind the rest of these tools. That’s why a vivid teal resolves to a teal name rather than whatever happens to be closest in RGB coordinates. Want the raw values instead? The converter has HEX, RGB, HSL, and OKLCH for any color.
Frequently asked questions
How does it pick the nearest color?
It scores every one of the 31,906 names by ΔE2000 (CIEDE2000) — the CIE's perceptual color-difference metric, computed in a uniform color space — and returns the closest. It is an exact full scan (no shortcut prefilter), run in a Web Worker so the UI stays responsive, so the ranking reflects how different the colors actually look rather than how far apart their RGB numbers are.
Where do the names come from?
From the open-source meodai color-name-list (MIT) — about 32,000 community-curated names. They're creative, human names (think "Dodger Blue" or "Midnight Express"), not a proprietary catalog, so there's no licensing or trademark baggage.
Why not just use RGB distance?
Straight-line distance in sRGB doesn't match human vision — two pairs the same RGB distance apart can look very different. ΔE2000 is built for perceptual uniformity, so the nearest name is the one that actually looks closest, especially for saturated colors.
What does the ΔE number mean?
ΔE is perceptual distance. Roughly: under ~1 is imperceptible (essentially the same color), 1–2 is barely noticeable, 2–10 is a close but distinct color, and larger means the dictionary simply has nothing nearer. So a small ΔE means the name is a genuinely good fit.
Is my color sent anywhere?
No. The dictionary loads into your browser and the whole search runs client-side. Your color is encoded in the URL so you can share a result, but nothing is uploaded.
Related tools
References
This tool’s color math is grounded in the following standards and primary sources.
- The CIEDE2000 color-difference formula — Sharma, Wu & Dalal (2005), Color Research & Application
- Color.js — Lea Verou & Chris Lilley (MIT)
- CSS Color: named colors — W3C — the standard named-color keywords
- color-names — meodai — 30k+ community color names (MIT)
Spotted an error? Let us know — reader corrections are the best review this site gets.