Different shades of blue: a list of names and color codes - Design blog (2023)

There are hundreds of shades of blue and we have many examples of a specific color name assigned to different HEX codes. On the other hand, many blue colors are known by more than one name. We will try to present as many shades of blue as possible in a slightly different arrangement than you might expect. Each color has its own story, and this article covers dozens of them.

Blue for confidence and authority

Blue has been used to express and emphasize strength for many centuries. It is no coincidence that police uniforms are often blue or mostly blue. Its effect on the human psyche is calming in most cases, and ancient culture associated it with heaven and the gods. The reason is obvious: although blue is not as common in nature as some other colors, it is dominant in sky and water, two key elements in nature closely related to the divine.

When the King of England (George III) needed a high-impact color to express royalty right away, various fabric manufacturers across the country tried to develop the right color and tone. In the end, the competition was won by Scutts Bridge Mill. Queen Charlotte wore a cloak in this color, which gave the color its alternative name Queen Blue.

#2B60DEroux azul

#002366Royal Blue (traditional)

#4169E1Royal Blue (Web ή SVG)

#0038A8Royal blue

#7851A9royal purple

By adding white or black, we can immediately create dozens of tones and nuances for the same color and with different production processes and add a fewRedor yellow inevitably follows. The addition of red in particular led to dramatic changes, as seen in the royal purple above. It is really interesting to know how many ways there areturns bluewhich should be called primary or primary color.

Around 1950, a different and lighter shade of blue came to be known as royal blue, and with the introduction of computer graphics (in addition to numerous limitations that gradually changed) and the so-called royal blue. Simply naming colors with numbers seemed like a practical idea, but it didn't guarantee standardization.

Here are some examples of Royal Blue:

#4876FFroyal blue 1

#436EEEroyal blue 2

#3A5FCDroyal blue 3

#27408Broyal blue 4

#3333FFRoyal Blue (Safe Hex3) also known as Neon Blue

We're not done with ultimate power yet. As we mentioned, blue was named after the queen. The palate, the president, uranium, and the empire all fall into this category.

#4997D0Blue sky

#002395azul imperial

#273BE2palatinate blue

#302B54blue presidential

#436B95blue queen

Let's go back to Earth and the repressive machinery, where blue immediately evokes respect and authority.

#39B7CDNYPD blue

#0BB5FFpolice strobe

#5D8AA8blue air force

#000080dark blue

#5F9EA0blue cadet

Navy, the classic authority color, can also be used in a very playful way, as you can see in the photo above. The pupil's relative blue is softer and even better suited for younger or less solemn occasions.

In fact, there are five more Cadet Blue colors whose names differ only in numbers:

#5F9F9Fblue cadet 1

#98F5FFcadet blue 2

#8EE5EEcadet blue 3

#7AC5CDcadet blue 4

#53868Bcadet blue 5

And we can present at least five examples that officially belong to the navy color family!

#1974D2Light Navy (Crayola)

#091F92indigo dye

#32127Apersian indigo

#4E5180navy purple

#1D2951space cadet

There are very real reasons for so many different shades of blue (or other colors). British navy blue, originally called navy blue, has slowly become the official color for most sailors around the world. But using it in harsh conditions with salt water and strong sun has always faded a bit, so many boaters have started using black (believe it or not, but it comes in many shades) which is much more weather resistant.

The end result: everything you can imagine and more!

List of universities and schools with blue uniforms

For similar reasons, schools and universities love to include different variations of blue in their coats of arms, uniforms, and here are ten colors of blue to choose from named after famous schools where it's used:

#0070FF Brandeis Blue

#A3C1AD Cambridge Azul

#7BAFD4 Carolina Blue (University of North Carolina)

#9BDDFF Columbia Blue or Jordy Blue

#001A57 Duka Blue, or Prussian Blue(we will find another color with the same name with a different code later)

Most of the colleges listed have changed their uniform colors over the centuries, so don't be upset if you find any discrepancies between the listed blues. We tried to check each of them on official websites, but some of them are outdated, others offer conflicting data, and some information is simply not available.

Duke Blue presents just one of the interesting stories that started with Yale Blue (where its manager came from, but after many changes they decided on #001A57 (Prussian Blue). To make it even more interesting, it is also associated with Prussian Blue with a different code (which will be added later with its own story).

Columbia Blue is also known by the codes #9CDDFF and #C4D8E2!

#96C8A2 token azul

#002147 Oxford Blue aka Deep Cyan

#417DC1 Blue tufts

#3C9BED UCLA azul

#00356B Yale Blue

For example, two HEX codes are associated on the Internet: #0F4D92, as well as #0E4C92 for Yale Blue. When we consult the official website of Yale University, the answer is simple: #00356B, but they also allow the use of blue in two very different shades: #286DC0 to #63AAFF. Oxford blue is also associated with #2F394D and #374853, and University of California, Los Angeles blue is associated with three other codes: #3A9AEC, #536895 to #3284BF.

Honestly - at least two of the colors on display look more green than blue to me, but hey - who wants to argue with kids from Cambridge or Eton?

For various reasons, many shades of blue are associated with specific places and even countries.

#0072BB french blue

#318CE7 french blue

#1034A6 egyptian blue

#1C39BB Persian Blue

#0067A5 Medium Persian Blue

Not only countries, smaller entities like islands, ports or even beaches have named specific colors of blue:

#062A78 Catherine Blue

#006DB0 Honolulu blue

#0095B6 blue body

#517693 Maltese blue

#42C0FB Caribbean Blue

We'll get back to the water, but first we should check out at least one special color with a rather romantic name - Evening in Paris (yes, there are perfumes with the same name on the market and it's also the name of a popular themed party). As you can see, different paint manufacturers offer different interpretations of this wonderful color:

#254280 Night in Paris (Berger)

#28497Night in Paris (Coronado)

#314D8C One Night in Paris (Kelly-Moore)

#315889 Night in Paris (Cloverdale)

#938FA0 Night in Paris (Behr)

Blue colors - shades

The sky can have countless shades of blue, so we can expect to see multiple shades of blue in the sky. Only some of them are presented in the following series:

#87CEEB Blue sky

#87CEFF Blue sky 1

#7EC0EE Blue Sky 2

#6CA6CD Blue Sky 3

#4A708B Sky Blue 4

In addition to these five shades of sky blue, there are five others with almost identical names, differing only in numbers or conventions.

#0099CCblue sky 5

#3299CCblue sky 6

#80DAEBBlue Sky (Crayola)

#77B5FESky Blue (Pourpre.com) aka French Sky Blue

#C0D9D9clear blue sky

But it's not over! Sky blue is obviously too general a term, so more specific names ended up on the list of blue colors. Sky blue is one of them, and it also seems to have at least five shades of the same name:

nº 87 CEFAclear blue sky

#B0E2FFJasnoniebieski 1

#A4D3EEclear blue sky 2

#8DB6CDJasnoniebieski 3

#607B8BJasnoniebieski 4

Okay, enough bright sky colors. We all know that the weather is very variable and we cannot expect it to be always sunny. Ready for deeper, more dramatic shades of blue?

#00BFFFFDeep Sky Blue, or Capri Blue, or Turquoise Blue

#00B2EEdeep blue sky 2

#009ACDdeep blue sky 3

#00688Bdeep blue sky 4

#1B3F8Bsky in alaska

How about a little more blue sky with the right HTML codes?

#00AAE4Sky Blue (G&S) also known as Spanish Sky Blue

#8CBED6Sky Blue (Pantone) also known as Dark Sky Blue

#67C8FFazul neon

#4D4DFFlight neon blue

#38B0DEsummer blue sky

The color of the cloudless sky got its name - blue, and hence the name of the color blue. In fact, we can offer a complete set of blue colors:

#007FFFblue blue

#E0EEEEEEMedium sky blue akaAzure2

#C1CDCDDark blue akaAzure3

#838B8BDeepest Sky Blue akaAzure4

#F0FFFFAzul Azure (SVG/WEB)

Did you know that the word azur comes from the same root as the Spanish blue, which is short for "lapis azuli"? Lapis azuli is, of course, a gemstone and let's get to that too! Let's stay in the sky's shadow for now. When the sun goes down, for example, the color of the sky changes, which inspired another set of variations:

#003366Dark blue at midnight

#000033Midnight Blue Hex

#2F2F4Fnorth blue

#191970Midnight Blue (SVG)

#00009CNot Midnight Blue, or Duke Blue

Well, heaven has been home to gods and other supreme deities for most cultures. Various cultures have postulated heaven or similar transcendent places. One of the words used for sky or sky is celestial, so we have a set of azure blue shades listed:

#B2FFFF Jasnoniebieski

#E6FFFF Sky Dust (Dusty)

#CCFFFF light blue (light)

#CCE6E6 Celeste Velato (cloudy/cloudy)

#80CCCC Light Blue Opaque (opaque)

Did you notice that we already created a sublist of forty blue color variations?

Water is blue too - Aqua Blue Colors with HEX codes

The second dominant element in nature in blue is water. Aqua is Latin for water, so we can start here with a variety of blue colors.

#00FFFF Aqua (Safe 16 SVG Hex3) akaCyan

#BCD4E6 Blady Aqua akaBeau Blue

#88D8C0 Pearl water

#66CCCC Aqua (Safe Hex3)

#05B8CC Aqua Cerulean

If we need shades of blue more related to specific types of waters or waters with geographical names, here they are:

#35586C Pacific Blue, czyli Neon Blue

#7D7F94 Nilo Azul

#4CB7A5 The Blue Lagoon

#67E6EC blue pool

#2B65EC Ocean blue

Each of North America's Great Lakes has its own specific color:

#6183A6 Spooky Lake

#5D7B93 Jezioro Huron

#50A6C2 Jezioro Michigan

#4D71A3 Lake Ontario

#506987 Lake Superior

Let's try to compare them with a satellite image:

Well, these colors obviously vary according to the weather and we can't expect a perfect match for every shade. It's best to continue with more shades and shades of blue. We are still in different states of water:

#74BBFB Blue Ice

#71A6D2 Iceberg

#ACE5EE Blue Blizzard

#82CFFD Blue Mist

#AF96D1 Spindrift azul

We are not done with inanimate nature. Blue can be found in many minerals, some of which gave rise to the first pigments. Lapis Azuli is probably the most famous of them. Its beauty and rarity is one of the main reasons why blue came to be seen in so many places as a special color, reserved for the nobility and members of the upper classes.

List of bluish colors with mineral names

Here we have a list of blue ones with precious or semi-precious stone names. To remember? The official history of the color blue began with lapis lazuli!

#26619C Lapis Lazuli

#73A9C2 blue moonstone

#082567 Sapphire

#0EBFE9 Blue Diamond

#0198E1 Topaz

Lapis lazuli, already beautiful with its deep blue color, is often found mixed in nature with pyrite, known for its golden glow, as seen in the photo below. Shown on the right is the pigment made, the basis of the color most dear to Renaissance painters. It's called Ultramarine. Four other stones in this series come in different colors, but here they are only represented in blue varieties.

Although we already mentioned pigments, we can present some classic blue pigments with the appropriate hex codes:

#60869B Aerinit
#071762 Anthraquinone
#004379 Approx
#3A688A Azure
#004BA8 Cavansite

#A6E0E9 Copper Blue
#138C95 Copper hydroxide
#0326CA Blue hand
#283F82 Cinetite
#2A3352 Cyjanit

#102AD2 Manganese Oxide
#73C2FB Blue May
#044F90 Blue Pentagon
#7AC5FC Blue Ploss
#50748C Riebekit

#4A5CA6
#112F64 Blue Tungsten
#365F9D Ultramarine Ash
#0B2C41 Vivianita
#4D5B8A Wood

I remember? It all started with lapis lazuli!Let's continue with another semi-precious stone, this time known in many bluish tones.

#4E78A0 Aquamarine blue

#7FFFD4 Aquamarine

#66CDAA medium aquamarine

#32CD99 Medium dark aquamarine

#76EEC6 Dark Aquamarine

We cannot continue without another important shade of blue that always mixes with green. Sometimes green is dominant, as shown below in the color scale and their corresponding names.

#00FFEF turquoise blue

#34DDDD Turquoise Hexagonal Grid

#40E0D0 Turkish

#00E5EE Standard Turquoise, which is Turquoise 2

#00C5CD Deep Turquoise aka Turquoise 3

Believe it or not, we managed to compile a list of 15 turquoise colors!

#AFEEEE Light Turquoise aka Pale Blue aka Pale Turquoise

#BBFFFF pale turquoise i.e. bright turquoise

#668B8B A deeper light turquoise

#48D1CC Medium Turquoise

#00CED1 Dark Turquoise

Did you know that turquoise got its name from Turkey (the French term "pierre tuquoise" translates as "Turkish stone")? While ancient turquoise's origins likely lie in what is now Iran, European traders brought it to Turkish bazaars, which means we know of at least two famous items from Turkey (the turkey, a bird native to South America, and turquoise, a precious stone from Persia) that is not from Turkey!

#00868B The darkest turquoise

#32C6A6 Pearly Mystical Turquoise

#00F5FF Shocking Turquoise

#5E7D7E Turquoise Gray

#A0D6B4 Turquoise Green

We also added Turquoise Green to the set, which already belongs to the family of green colors, but the situation with turquoise has always been on the fence - turquoise or blue-green. Some of these HTML codes are also known by different names.

Blue is one of the so-called cool colors. It should come as no surprise to find it in various combinations with various metals and other inorganic substances.

#3D59AB Cobalt Blue

#6666FF cobalt light

#003399 Smalt aka Dark Powder Blue

#2E37FE Blue stained glass

#236B8E Blue steel

Steel apparently inspired a whole family of blue colors. Note - Blue Steel is not the same as Steel Blue!

#63B8FF Steel blue

#5CACEE Blue Steel 2

#4F94CD blue steel 3

#36648B Blue Steel 4

#4682B4 Blue steel blue

Here are five variations of Light Steel Blue.

#B0C4DE Jasnostalowoniebieski

#CAE1FF Jasnostalowoniebieski 1

#BCD2EE Light Steel Blue 2

#A2B5CD steel light blue 3

#6E7B8B Jasnostalowoniebieski 4

We are still in the inorganic region, slowly moving from metals to more amorphous structures.

#ADB2BD Aluminum blue

#73B1B7 Old Copper

#000F89 Phthalic Blue

#50729F Blue stone

#B0E0E6 Powder blue

Let's get away from the materials for a moment: one of the colors above (Phthalo Blue) is actually known in the trade by many different names: Helio Blue, Monastral Blue, Thalo Blue, Winsor Blue and also British Rail Blue. It is known by its chemical names and abbreviations Copper Tetrabenzoporphyrazine, C.I. Copper Phthalocyanine Blue, Cu-Phthalo Blue, Phthalocyanine Blue or simply CuPc. Thanks to light resistance, opacity, dispersibility, stability (resistance to acids and alkalis) and bright color, it is widely used in paints and inks.

Now, back to the main story… Slate also has its own blues family.

#6A5ACD Blue Slate

#836FFF Light blue slate

#7A67EE Blue Slate 2

#6959CD Blue Slate 3

#473C8B Blue Slate 4

There are even more slate colors, some of them also look very blue, but they officially belong to the gray color group. Let's go to the living nature?

A list of blue colors with flower names

The first blue dyes were made from minerals, but true mass production did not begin until herbal extraction was perfected. Many different flowers were used, leading to a whole family of cornflowers, for example:

#3300FF Corn

#6495ED Centaury Blue

#93CCEA Light Blue Corn (Crayola)

#ABCDEF bladoniebieski centaur

#344152 Blue corn

The most well-known (and stable) vegetable dye is obviously indigo, with one of the varieties mentioned above in navy blue. Here are five more:

#00416A Indigo

#2E0854 Dark indigo

#6F00FF Electric Indigo

#4B0082 Indigo (SVG)

#72587F Indigo tile

The next set is occupied by two flowers: flower and lavender.

#CCCCFF Why?

#AAAAFF Sweet Periwinkle (Hex 3)

#B57EDC lavender blue (floral)

#E6E6FA Lavender Mist Lavender (Web)

#9457EB Lavender Indigo

Both colors are known to come in many variations, often going purple or violet, sometimes grey.

For example, you can check thismyrtle color card article.Here we have five more blue flowers:

#B7C3D0 Heather blue

#5A4FCF Irys

#7EB6FF Forget Me

#A2A2D0 Else blue

#838EDE Nikko azul

Although blue is by no means one of the most common colors in the animal world, we can still find many examples of blue colors named after animals. Shall we start with water?

#6996 blue shark

#42647F Blue Whale

#687C97 Blue tint

#6F7285 Blue Dolphin

#46C7C7 Blue jellyfish

In the animal world, color often serves as camouflage, and the colors of fish (and marine mammals) are not particularly attractive. On the other hand, jellyfish use their color as a kind of warning. We also already know that blue is in the air, and the animal world is no exception:

#4973AB Bluebird

#33A1C9 Pata de Niebieski

#1D7CF2 Peacock Blue

#96DED1 Light Blue Mr. Robin

#C3E4ED Robin's Egg Blue

Some animals live in the water and in the air in almost the same way. A good example is a small freshwater duck with a distinctive blue-green stripe on its wings. Yes, teal is another name for this type of duck and yes, we have a full range of turquoise colors!

#367588 Turquoise Blue

#00FFCC Light Turquoise

#388E8E SGI turquesa

#008080 Chirkiri

#05 Turquoise LED EDFF

To round up the number, we've rounded up five more blue animal colors!

#003EFF Cichild azul

#3579DC Blue Parrot

#5D92B1 Blue Sponge

#1464F4 Blue Ulysses Butterfly

#88ACE0 Vaca Azul aka Moo Blue

And people? Blue is the most popular color in the world among women and men. Several artists were so delighted with it that some shades were named after them. Let's see what we have:

#6050DC Majorelle niebieski

#0047AB Parrish Blue also known as Cobalt Blue

#4D6FAC Pollock azul

#0276FD Azul Picasso

#739AC5 Azul Seurat

Here are the full names of the painters who inspired the aforementioned names:

Jacques Majorelle (March 7, 1886 – October 14, 1962)
Maxfield Parrish (July 25, 1870 – March 30, 1966)
Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956)
Pablo Ruiz and Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973)
Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891)

There is also another special shade of blue named after a person:

What is the color of Alice Blue?

#F0F8FF (240, 248, 255) Blue Alice
#9DD3DF ICI paints Alice Blue (157, 211, 223)
#A3A9D1 Farby MF Alice Azul (163, 169, 209)
#A3D7E5 CIL Alice Azul (163, 215, 229)
#A6D7DD Devoe Paint Alice Blue (166, 215, 221)

The color Alice Blue is named after Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980), the eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. She was a writer and instantly became a fashion icon when she showed up to her first social gathering in her signature blue dress. Her influence on women's dress code trends was huge and she didn't stop dressing in colorful clothes. She openly "fought" men in traditionally masculine areas of the time, such as smoking, gambling, clubbing and driving. This shade of blue is still very popular for dresses and is sure to be in demand for years to come.

How about an even more popular shade of blue? Blue baby?

Baby Blue Color

Baby Blue color is closely associated with newborns and other male children. This delicate shade became especially popular after the Second World War and is always in contrast to the baby pink, reserved for girls. Know the family?

#89CFF0 (137, 207, 240) Baby blue
#C9DBE5 (201, 219, 229) Baby blue (CIL)
#A2C6D3 (162, 198, 211) Baby blue (Earth color)
#C3D7E1 (195, 215, 225) Baby blue (farby ICI)
#CDDBDE (205, 219, 222) Baby Blue (farba Devoe)

You won't find these pastel blue shades only in baby clothes. As you can see, there are several brands of Baby Blue paints on the market, and we present just a few of them.

#A1CAF1 (161, 202, 241) Child's blue eyes
#7A808C (122, 128, 140) Baby Blue Nippon Paint Towel
#AAC9EA PPG Pittsburgh Baby Trznadel (170, 201, 234)
#E7FEFF (231, 254, 255) Bubbles
#6CA0DC (108, 160, 220) Little Blue Boy

Let's stick with the pastries, but this time for bigger customers:

David's wedding dress colors

In recent years, several companies have started to create names for the colors of their products, and the wedding industry is a good example of this practice. For example, David's Bridal is an American outfit that specializes in formal wear, especially for weddings. Their colorful wedding dresses for brides and bridesmaids are extremely popular, as are their colors. They don't have publicly known HTML codes, but with our tools we can reproduce very good approximations so that you can try out some combinations yourself without having to go to the store or ask for samples.

Here's the first line, as it's sometimes calledOcean:

#81CDC9Spa
#74C6D4 Basen
#00B2D0Malibu
#1C83B1Paz
#00829AOaza

The second blues line in David's Bridal is called (appropriately -unexpectedly)

#A6D4EB Capri
#0289CBC Camera
#044B9B Horizon
#384EA3 Blue violet
#1B485D Pata

I have to admit these two lines are not complete because I was trying to keep five colors in a row so some colors didn't qualify. Here they are, along with two more shades of turquoise from David's Bridal color scheme for brides and bridesmaids:

#03807C Jadeit
#005162 Jewel (Ocean)
#E0F2F2 Vidro do Mar (from Fora do Azul)
#0D3662 Marine (z of nowhere)
#01A7A8Syrenka

We're not done yet. One shade was missing (Ice Blue) and I decided to add four more from Alfred Angelo's drawing, this time of his blue ties for groomsmen and groomsmen:

#92B1D7Ice Blue (also by David's Bridal)
#86C2B6Aqua (by Alfred Angelo)
#117597 Blue Bermuda (by Alfred Angelo)
#115965Dark Pacific (por Alfred Angelo)
Ink #1D2F5F (by Alfred Angelo)

What do you think? Time for more artistic waters?

#2762EA RGB (39,98,234) Lascaux Cerulean Cobalt Blue
#34287C RGB (52,40,124) Ultramarine Blue από Gold (Heavy Body)
#1B1E47 RGB (27,30,71) Old Delft Blue z Old Holland
#18599B RGB (24,89,155) Phthalo Blue Firmy Daler-Rowney
#002FA7 RGB (0,47,167) Yves Klein Blue aka International Klein Blue aka IKB

This is just the beginning - four popular acrylic colors versus one of the most interesting shades of blue ever. It is said to have a glow like no other blue color. Yves Klein (1928-1968) was a French artist who composed this unique shade from an ultramarine pigment (produced by color supplier Edoard Adam) and a synthetic resin called Medium Adam 25. It is the resin used as a binder that is supposed to give the color your uniqueness. Klein used this ink to bathe models who, under his direction, rolled, danced and writhed across paper and canvas, creating spectacular works of art.

It is said that IKB is unplayable, but the truth is that there is probably no commercial interest on the part of the manufacturers. Well, it's up to you to find the magic in it (or any other shade of blue), but if you're into acrylic paints, here's a growing one.a post about acrylics for beginners…

My main goal - writing 50 shades of blue soon turned into a hundred, and now this article offers over two hundred (to be exact 270 shades of blue at the moment) variations of blue, which officially leads to the longest list of blue variations with corresponding HTML (HEX) codes on the web. My intention is to make it even bigger - to reach at least 300 different blues by the end of 2017. If you find this list, which took me hundreds of hours to collect, please check and double check, interesting, please share it with your friends. It will inspire me to expand it as much as possible, maybe even 300!

Thanks!