diff --git a/doc/users/colors.rst b/doc/users/colors.rst
index 18a5756f0ab5..d08861bccec0 100644
--- a/doc/users/colors.rst
+++ b/doc/users/colors.rst
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ it can be provided as:
 * a name from the `xkcd color survey <https://xkcd.com/color/rgb/>`__
   prefixed with ``'xkcd:'`` (e.g., ``'xkcd:sky blue'``)
 * one of ``{'C0', 'C1', 'C2', 'C3', 'C4', 'C5', 'C6', 'C7', 'C8', 'C9'}``
+* one of ``{'tab:blue', 'tab:orange', 'tab:green',
+  'tab:red', 'tab:purple', 'tab:brown', 'tab:pink',
+  'tab:gray', 'tab:olive', 'tab:cyan'}`` which are the Tableau Colors from the
+  'T10' categorical palette (which is the default color cycle).
 
 All string specifications of color are case-insensitive.
 
diff --git a/doc/users/dflt_style_changes.rst b/doc/users/dflt_style_changes.rst
index 125a95892f7e..34aaddaf02c5 100644
--- a/doc/users/dflt_style_changes.rst
+++ b/doc/users/dflt_style_changes.rst
@@ -32,8 +32,13 @@ Colors in default property cycle
 --------------------------------
 
 The colors in the default property cycle have been changed from
-``['b', 'g', 'r', 'c', 'm', 'y', 'k']`` to the `Vega category10 palette
-<https://github.com/vega/vega/wiki/Scales#scale-range-literals>`__
+``['b', 'g', 'r', 'c', 'm', 'y', 'k']`` to the category10
+color palette used by `Vega
+<https://github.com/vega/vega/wiki/Scales#scale-range-literals>`__ and
+`d3
+<https://github.com/d3/d3-3.x-api-reference/blob/master/Ordinal-Scales.md#category10>`__
+originally developed at Tableau.
+
 
 .. plot::
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py b/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
index 11a538f34722..7c47eca30378 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function,
                         unicode_literals)
-
+from collections import OrderedDict
 import six
 
 
@@ -15,6 +15,24 @@
     'w': (1, 1, 1)}
 
 
+# These colors are from Tableau
+TABLEAU_COLORS = OrderedDict((
+    ('blue', '#1f77b4'),
+    ('orange', '#ff7f0e'),
+    ('green', '#2ca02c'),
+    ('red', '#d62728'),
+    ('purple', '#9467bd'),
+    ('brown', '#8c564b'),
+    ('pink', '#e377c2'),
+    ('gray', '#7f7f7f'),
+    ('olive', '#bcbd22'),
+    ('cyan', '#17becf'))
+)
+
+# Normalize name to "tab:<name>" to avoid name collisions.
+TABLEAU_COLORS = OrderedDict(
+    ('tab:' + name, value) for name, value in TABLEAU_COLORS.items())
+
 # This mapping of color names -> hex values is taken from
 # a survey run by Randel Monroe see:
 # http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/
@@ -973,7 +991,6 @@
     'green': '#15b01a',
     'purple': '#7e1e9c'}
 
-
 # Normalize name to "xkcd:<name>" to avoid name collisions.
 XKCD_COLORS = {'xkcd:' + name: value for name, value in XKCD_COLORS.items()}
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/colors.py b/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
index 2825c33fe97f..ee1b41e17757 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 from numpy import ma
 import matplotlib.cbook as cbook
-from ._color_data import BASE_COLORS, CSS4_COLORS, XKCD_COLORS
+from ._color_data import BASE_COLORS, TABLEAU_COLORS, CSS4_COLORS, XKCD_COLORS
 
 
 class _ColorMapping(dict):
@@ -86,7 +86,14 @@ def __delitem__(self, key, value):
 _colors_full_map = {}
 # Set by reverse priority order.
 _colors_full_map.update(XKCD_COLORS)
+_colors_full_map.update({k.replace('grey', 'gray'): v
+                         for k, v in XKCD_COLORS.items()
+                         if 'grey' in k})
 _colors_full_map.update(CSS4_COLORS)
+_colors_full_map.update(TABLEAU_COLORS)
+_colors_full_map.update({k.replace('gray', 'grey'): v
+                         for k, v in TABLEAU_COLORS.items()
+                         if 'gray' in k})
 _colors_full_map.update(BASE_COLORS)
 _colors_full_map = _ColorMapping(_colors_full_map)
 
@@ -253,7 +260,7 @@ def to_hex(c, keep_alpha=False):
 ### Backwards-compatible color-conversion API
 
 cnames = CSS4_COLORS
-COLOR_NAMES = {'xkcd': XKCD_COLORS, 'css4': CSS4_COLORS}
+COLOR_NAMES = {'xkcd': XKCD_COLORS, 'css4': CSS4_COLORS, 'tc': TABLEAU_COLORS}
 hexColorPattern = re.compile("\A#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\Z")
 
 
@@ -404,7 +411,7 @@ class Colormap(object):
 
     """
     def __init__(self, name, N=256):
-        r"""
+        """
         Parameters
         ----------
         name : str
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_colors.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_colors.py
index 4f9c44c16ccf..233616ccb65e 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_colors.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_colors.py
@@ -571,9 +571,10 @@ def angled_plane(azimuth, elevation, angle, x, y):
             assert_array_almost_equal(h, np.cos(np.radians(angle)))
 
 
-def test_xkcd():
+def test_color_names():
     assert mcolors.to_hex("blue") == "#0000ff"
     assert mcolors.to_hex("xkcd:blue") == "#0343df"
+    assert mcolors.to_hex("tab:blue") == "#1f77b4"
 
 
 def _sph2cart(theta, phi):
@@ -643,6 +644,23 @@ def test_conversions():
                  hex_color)
 
 
+def test_grey_gray():
+    color_mapping = mcolors._colors_full_map
+    for k in color_mapping.keys():
+        if 'grey' in k:
+            assert color_mapping[k] == color_mapping[k.replace('grey', 'gray')]
+        if 'gray' in k:
+            assert color_mapping[k] == color_mapping[k.replace('gray', 'grey')]
+
+
+def test_tableau_order():
+    dflt_cycle = ['#1f77b4', '#ff7f0e', '#2ca02c', '#d62728',
+                  '#9467bd', '#8c564b', '#e377c2', '#7f7f7f',
+                  '#bcbd22', '#17becf']
+
+    assert list(mcolors.TABLEAU_COLORS.values()) == dflt_cycle
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     import nose
     nose.runmodule(argv=['-s', '--with-doctest'], exit=False)