Y Ddraig Goch: the red dragon flag
The flag of Wales shows Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon, striding across a field of white over green. The dragon has been a Welsh symbol for well over a thousand years. The green and white were the colours of the Tudors, and Henry Tudor, who was of Welsh descent, is said to have carried a red dragon banner at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The design was officially recognised as the national flag of Wales in 1959.
Why Wales isn’t on the Union Jack
The UK flag 🇬🇧 combines the crosses of England, Scotland and Ireland, and leaves Wales out. When the first Union Flag was made in 1606, Wales had already been joined to the Kingdom of England by law, so it was treated as part of England. That is a big reason the Welsh emoji matters to people: 🇬🇧 doesn’t represent Wales, while 🏴 does.
When the emoji turns into a black flag
Like England and Scotland, the Wales flag is a tag sequence: a black flag 🏴 plus hidden letters that spell gbwls and an end tag, seven code points in all. Phones and apps that understand it draw the dragon. Windows doesn’t draw any flag emoji, and phones older than about 2018 don’t know this one, so both show the black flag alone. If that happens, the dragon is still in the text you sent. The “Dragon + flag” button gives you 🐉🏴, which keeps the meaning even on the oldest devices.
St David’s Day and Welsh phrases
St David’s Day, 1 March, honours the patron saint of Wales. People wear daffodils or leeks, and children in Welsh schools often dress up in traditional costume. There is no daffodil or leek emoji, so 🌼 (blossom) is the usual stand-in. The copy buttons above give you Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus (“Happy St David’s Day”), Cymru am byth (“Wales forever”) and Pob lwc (“good luck”), handy during the Six Nations rugby in February and March. To type ŵ yourself on a phone, long-press the w key.
Discord, Slack and keyboards
- Discord:
:wales: - Slack:
:flag-wales: - iPhone and Android: search “Wales” in the emoji keyboard.
- Windows: there’s no Wales flag in the emoji panel, so paste it from here.
Wales flag emoji codes
| Unicode name | flag: Wales |
| Code points (7) | U+1F3F4 U+E0067 U+E0062 U+E0077 U+E006C U+E0073 U+E007F |
| Emoji version | Emoji 5.0 (2017) |
| HTML hex | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 |
| HTML decimal | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 |
| UTF-8 bytes (28) | F0 9F 8F B4 F3 A0 81 A7 F3 A0 81 A2 F3 A0 81 B7 F3 A0 81 AC F3 A0 81 B3 F3 A0 81 BF |
| URL encoded | %F0%9F%8F%B4%F3%A0%81%A7%F3%A0%81%A2%F3%A0%81%B7%F3%A0%81%AC%F3%A0%81%B3%F3%A0%81%BF |
| JavaScript (ES6) | \u{1F3F4}\u{E0067}\u{E0062}\u{E0077}\u{E006C}\u{E0073}\u{E007F} |
| JSON / Java / C# (UTF-16, 14 units) | \uD83C\uDFF4\uDB40\uDC67\uDB40\uDC62\uDB40\uDC77\uDB40\uDC6C\uDB40\uDC73\uDB40\uDC7F |
| Python | \U0001F3F4\U000E0067\U000E0062\U000E0077\U000E006C\U000E0073\U000E007F |
| CSS content | "\1F3F4 \E0067 \E0062 \E0077 \E006C \E0073 \E007F" |
| Shortcodes | :wales: (Discord, GitHub), :flag-wales: (Slack) |
Wales flag emoji FAQ
Why does the Wales flag emoji show as a black flag?
The Wales flag is a black flag emoji followed by hidden tag letters (gbwls). Windows and older phones don’t support that combination, so they display only the black flag. On current iPhones, Android phones and WhatsApp the red dragon appears.
Why isn’t Wales on the Union Jack?
When the first Union Flag was created in 1606, Wales was already legally part of the Kingdom of England, so its own symbol wasn’t added. The Union Jack combines only the crosses of England, Scotland and Ireland.
How do you say Happy St David’s Day in Welsh?
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus. St David’s Day is on 1 March. Tap the message button on this page to copy it with the Welsh flag emoji.
What is the Discord code for the Wales flag?
On Discord and GitHub type :wales:, and on Slack type :flag-wales:. The Unicode code points are U+1F3F4 U+E0067 U+E0062 U+E0077 U+E006C U+E0073 U+E007F.
More flags: copy any of 270 flag emoji in the multi-flag copy picker, test yourself with the Guess the Flag quiz, or print classroom flags from our free printable world flags.
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