What it does
Color Name List pairs human-readable names with hexadecimal colour values. It publishes a full collection, a selected Best of list and a short-name subset, with downloadable formats, JavaScript usage guidance and a linked naming API. Project code is released under MIT for reuse and adaptation.
Choose the list that fits the interface: the full collection offers breadth, Best of reduces the selection, and the short subset keeps labels under 13 characters. JSON, CSV, JavaScript and other published formats let the same data serve an application or a reference workflow.
In JavaScript, each entry contains a name and hex value. The usage guide shows exact lookups and a helper for finding a nearby named colour. It also notes that raw RGB distance can give a poorer visual match than a perceptual colour-difference method.
For browser projects, smaller imports or the public API avoid bundling the whole list. The API can return names for colour values and search names back to colour values. Project code is under MIT; its notices must remain with redistributed copies.
Strengths
- Full, selected and short subsets suit different interface sizes.
- Usage examples cover both exact lookups and nearby-colour naming.
Watch out for
- Bundling the full collection increases browser download size.
- Very high commercial API traffic may lead to a sponsorship request.
Best for
- Creative applications that need readable labels for saved colour values.
Sources
- GitHub - meodai/color-names: Large list of handpicked color names 🌈 · GitHub (Oct 28, 2026)
- color-names/docs/usage-js.md at main · meodai/color-names · GitHub (Oct 28, 2026)
- GitHub - meodai/color-name-api: Rest API that returns a bunch of color names for a given color-value · GitHub (Oct 28, 2026)
- color-names/LICENSE at main · meodai/color-names · GitHub (Oct 28, 2026)