rebeccapurple, #663399, named in memory of Rebecca Meyer

The color purple

rebeccapurple, #663399, named in memory of Rebecca Meyer

This particular shade of purple, #663399, is now officially designated rebeccapurple, making it one of only about 150 CSS web colors with a name. It was the favorite color of Rebecca Meyer, a little girl who died of brain cancer on her 6th birthday. Rebecca’s dad, Eric Meyer, is a well-known and highly respected CSS guru who chronicled his daughter’s battle with cancer on his website, and his many friends, colleagues, and followers decided on this as an appropriate memorial. They originally proposed the name beccapurple, but Meyer said that just weeks before her birthday, his daughter had announced that Becca was a “baby name” and she would become Rebecca on her 6th birthday. And so she did. She was Rebecca for 12 hours.

 

R.I.P.

Rebecca Alison Meyer
Ahuva Raya bat Kayla
7 June 2008 – 7 June 2014

8 thoughts on “The color purple

  1. this is so sad and what a beautiful tribute, a color. i can think of no better way to honor a young life, full of color, than this. and i love that she grew up to be rebecca, even if it was only for a half of one day.

  2. I tinker around with Paint Shop Pro a lot as I have mentioned before and I appreciate you passing this info along. I definitely like the color and especially the given name.

  3. I did a search and found the incidence of brain cancer to be 23,000 new cases per year, or about 8 in 100,000. Aside from a few very rare genetic conditions, the cause and risk factors are a mystery. That children get them is evidence that prayer is ineffective. “Now I lay me down to sleep . . . “

  4. I first heard this story last night from my son, a systems architect familiar with Eric Meyer and his work. I don’t know how he managed to get through Meyer’s heartbreaking posts, since his daughter, my granddaughter, is just two years older than Rebecca was. I was reduced to tears before I got through one third-party report.

    There are more details — the day the hashtag #663399becca made the rounds on Twitter and everyone turned their avatar purple or the fact that Mozilla, Apple, Google and Microsoft have already agreed to change their browsers to recognize the new name. I just didn’t have the fortitude to write any more last night.

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