Genius! List of Emoji Names, Meanings, and Art

Looking for a list of emoji names?

Or pondering the meaning of a certain emoji? 🤔

Maybe even hesitating to use it in case it would be misinterpreted? 🤐

I’ve been there! So I was thrilled to find this genius (literally) list of emoji names on genius.com.

What is the definition of emoji?

An emoji is a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion.

According to Wikipedia,

Emoji are ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages and web pages. Emoji exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals. They are much like emoticons, but emoji are actual pictures instead of typographics.

infographic from Sprout Social

Emoji facts to impress your friends

Scroll down if you just want to see the emoji list!

No longer limited to text messages, emojis are everywhere.They’re popping up in movies, marketing campaigns, Halloween costumes, and even as bank passwords.

And why not? They communicate in a flash, and are fun too.

Millennials embrace emojis as a second language – but emojis connect with other adults, too. A recent survey from Emogi discovered 75% of men and 84% of women respondents believe emojis are a better way to express their emotions than words.

92% of the online population uses emojis.

Four in five 18 to 65 year olds report using emojis on a regular basis. And people over 65 are more likely than any other age group to say it’s “always appropriate” to send emojis to a direct manager, peer, or subordinate, according to data from a survey by Adobe.

infographic from Sprout Social

How many emojis are there in total?

There are 3,178 emojis in the Unicode Standard as of Emoji 12.1.

The most recent big emoji releases were:

• Emoji 13.0 is the new emoji list for 2020, approved on January 29, 2020 with 117 new emojis.
• Emoji 12.0 was approved on February 5, 2019 with 230 new emojis.
• Emoji 11.0 added 157 new emojis in June 2018.

Of the 117 new emojis approved for 2020, Pinched Fingers, Transgender Flag, and Smiling Face With Tear were the most popular on social media.

Least popular? Bucket, Placard, and Elevator.

The 2019 emojis included people with disabilities and mixed-race couples.

When was the first emoji ever created?

In 1999 Shigetaka Kurita created the first widely-used set of emoji. He was part of the team working on NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode mobile Internet platform.

In 2016, New York’s Museum of Modern Art added the original 176 emojis created in 1999 to its permanent collection. 🖼

When is National Emoji Day?

July 17 is World Emoji Day 📅

On July 17 2002, Apple unveiled its iCal app at MacWorld 2002. The iOS calendar emoji is a daily flip calendar set to July 17, the app’s “birthday.” 🎂

What’s the most used emoji in the world?

According to Apple, the Face with Tears of Joy emoji is the most popular. 😂

How many people use emojis?

According to a recent study by Privilege Insurance, 80% of people use emoji in communication. 🗣

Right now, there’s an unprecedented interest in emojis.

There was an entire book about emojis released on August 1, 2017: The Emoji Code.

As well as a movie, creatively named The Emoji Movie. 😉 Have you seen it? I saw it on Netflix 🙂

One of my favorite pastimes is playing Disney Emoji Blitz. This fun app launched on July 14, 2016.

A fast-paced match-3 game, Disney Emoji Blitz lets players match emojis to score points and unlock new Disney and Pixar emojis.

Once an emoji is collected within the game, it is also unlocked in the Disney Emoji Blitz keyboard, which can be used to send Disney and Pixar emojis to friends in messages.

With over 6 billion emojis sent around the world a day, heart-eyed Tinker Bell, unforgettable Dory, singing Ariel and grinning Genie will make conversations with friends and family more magically emotional. source

Learn Emoji Meanings from Siri! #iPhone Hack

Emojis are crazy and amazing all at the same time. They are the global language!

But how many times have you been stuck trying to figure out what some of the emojis actually mean? Too many 🙁

Guess no more! Siri to the rescue. Here’s the hack you can show off to all your iPhone friends.

Here’s How to Set Up Siri to Teach Emoji Language

Go to your iPhone Settings –> General –> Accessibility –> Speech.

Slide the Speak Selection button to the right so it’s green.

NOTE: This won’t affect anything on your phone until you tell it to – so no worries!

When you want something spoken out loud…

• Select the emoji you want described.
• If you don’t see Speak, tap the right arrow in the pop-up menu.
• Tap Speak in the pop-up.
• Listen to Siri tell you what the emoji is!

It’s that easy.

Check out the ones that confuse you! I learned that the emoji I thought was a student studying for a test, or a flustered young man, was actually “Person Bowing Deeply.”

Inappropriate emoji use avoided!

By the way, there’s a site that offers free personal usage of emojis: EmojiOne.

List of Emoji Names, Meanings, and Art

Click names that appear as a link for a pop up with a description and artwork. Click elsewhere on the page to close the popup.

Don’t forget, after the list there’s an emoji guide for newbies infographic.

Pin this post so you’ll always have a reference to a list of emoji names and descriptions handy. Enjoy!

Emoji Guide for Newbies

Emoji means picture character in Japanese, and they’re a quick way to communicate.

As attention spans decrease, the popularity of emojis is on the rise!

This cool infographic is compliments of WhoIsHostingThis.

What do you think – are emojis improving communication, or degrading it?

Share the emoji meaning guide with a friend, and let me know your opinions!