CSS named colors are predefined color keywords that can be used directly in CSS without specifying hex, RGB, or HSL values. For example, you can write color: tomato; or background: steelblue; instead of using hex codes. They make CSS more readable and are supported by all modern browsers. There are currently 148 named colors defined in the CSS Color Module Level 4 specification.

CSS defines 148 named colors. The original 16 "VGA" colors (like red, blue, green) were extended to 140 colors in CSS3 (including names like lightgoldenrodyellow, papayawhip), and later rebeccapurple was added in 2014 to honor Rebecca Meyer, the daughter of CSS pioneer Eric Meyer. The color rebeccapurple (#663399) was her favorite color. Several colors also have duplicate spellings (e.g., gray/grey, darkgray/darkgrey), which contribute to the total count of 148.

No, CSS named colors are case-insensitive. You can write Tomato, TOMATO, or tomato — all are valid. However, the convention is to use lowercase for consistency and readability. Most developers prefer lowercase in their stylesheets.

Named colors are easier to remember and read (color: coral; is intuitive). However, hex, RGB, and HSL offer far more precision — 16.7 million colors compared to just 148 named ones. Named colors are great for quick prototyping, learning CSS, or when you need a standard color like white, black, or tomato. For production projects requiring exact brand colors, hex or custom properties (CSS variables) are recommended.

The most popular named colors include: white, black, red, blue, green, gray, orange, tomato, steelblue, coral, gold, teal, and navy. Colors like transparent and currentColor are also keywords but are not part of the 148 named colors — they serve special purposes in CSS.

Named colors themselves don't support alpha channels directly. However, you can use them with color-mix() or combine them with CSS custom properties and rgb() conversion. For alpha transparency, you'd typically convert the named color to its RGB equivalent and use rgba() — for example, rgba(255, 99, 71, 0.5) for semi-transparent tomato. This tool helps you find the exact RGB values for any named color.

rebeccapurple (#663399) was added to the CSS specification in 2014 as a tribute to Rebecca Alison Meyer, the daughter of renowned web standards advocate Eric Meyer. Rebecca passed away from brain cancer on her 6th birthday. Purple was her favorite color. The CSS community and W3C honored her memory by immortalizing her favorite shade of purple as an official CSS named color — making it the 141st named color and one of the most meaningful additions to web standards.