How to Find the Name of a Hex Color

To find the name of a hex color, paste it into the color name finder and read the closest match. For example, a warm orange around #f59e0b returns a name in the amber family.

Why most colors get a nearest match

Screens can show millions of distinct colors, but only a few thousand have agreed names. That means most hex codes do not map to an exact name. Instead, a good namer finds the closest one.

The match is made by perceptual distance, which compares how the colors actually look rather than how similar their raw numbers are. Two hex codes can be close numerically yet look quite different, so judging by appearance gives a more natural answer.

When naming a color is useful

A recognisable name helps in a few everyday situations:

• Labelling swatches in a design file so teammates know what they are looking at.
• Describing a brand color in writing when a hex code alone is not friendly.
• Searching for similar colors, since a name is easier to talk about than #7c3aed.

Getting the most from the result

The finder accepts any CSS color, so you can enter a hex code, an rgb() value or an existing named color. It returns the nearest name and the exact hex you can copy to reuse the color elsewhere.

If you do not have a code yet, the color picker gives you one for any color you choose, and the image color extractor pulls codes straight out of a photo so you can name the colors you find there.