Royal blue describes both a bright shade and a dark range of blue. It is said to have been invented by millers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of which won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte.

Traditionally, dictionaries define royal blue as a deep to dark blue, often with a purple or faint reddish tinge.

Royal blue (traditional)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#002366
B	(r, g, b)	(0, 35, 102)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(219°, 100%, 20%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

By the mid-20th century, with the availability of brighter dyes, most people began to think of royal blue as a brighter color, and it was this brighter color that was chosen as the web color. The W3C has designated the keyword "royalblue" to be this much brighter color, rather than the traditional darker variant.

royalblue (webcolor)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#4169E1
B	(r, g, b)	(65, 105, 225)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(225°, 71%, 88%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Royal blue in culture

Books

• Royal Blue is the name of a bomb in the novel Snakehead, which is part of the Alex Rider series.^[1]

Film

• In the film Liar, Liar, Jim Carrey, playing the main protagonist, unsuccessfully attempts to lie that a Royal Blue pen is in fact red.^[2]

Fraternities and Sororities

• Royal blue is one of the colors of 3 NPHC organizations: Phi Beta Sigma^[3] , (its sister Sorority) Zeta Phi Beta^[4] and Sigma Gamma Rho^[5] , the Asian American Interest fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon^[6] , and the Latin Sorority Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha.^[7]

Music

• Royal Blue is the name of an album by Blues artist Koko Taylor.^[8]
• The Royal Blues are the official marching band of the Rocky Hill High School in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.^[9]

Religion

• In religion, royal blue is the color of royalty to welcome the coming of a king. In Christian art, royal blue can also symbolize the night sky in which the star appeared to the Three Wise Men to announce the birth of Jesus.

School

• Royal blue is the traditional school color of Yonsei University.

Sports

• Royal blue and white are the listed colors of the Indianapolis Colts.^[10]

• Royal blue is the traditional shirt color of Birmingham City F.C. The team's home strip has always been blue, usually with white trim.^[11]

• Royal blue is the traditional shirt color of Everton F.C. The Everton strip has always been predominantly royal blue, with white trim and white shorts.^[12]

• Royal blue is the traditional shirt color of Portsmouth F.C. Portsmouth's home strip has for the majority of their history been royal blue, normally worn with white shorts and red socks, though occaisionally an all blue kit is used.^[13]

• Royal blue is the main club color of Rangers F.C. The team's home strip invariably features a royal blue shirt (often with white and/or red trim).^[14]

• Royal blue and white are the traditional colors of the North Melbourne AFL team.^[15]

• It is the University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team's main color. ^[16]

• It is the dominant color for the Kansas City Royals baseball team's strip.^[17]

• "Die Königsblauen" ("The Royal Blues") is the nickname of German football team Schalke 04.^[18]

Transport

• The Royal Blue was the name of a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train.^[19]
• Royal Blue was the name of a major operator of coach services in the south and west of England from 1880 to 1986.^[20]

Vexillology

• Royal blue is the official color used in the flags of the U.S.A, American Samoa, Australia, Cayman Islands, Confederate, Georgia, Hawaii, Israel, New Zealand^[21], Norway, Philippines, Texas, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom.
• The background of the flag of the European Union is a medium shade of royal blue.

See also

• List of colors

References

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