Merman Emoji

A man with a fish tail instead of legs. He's a merman: the male counterpart to a mermaid, from mythology that predates recorded history.

Emojipedia describes the merman emoji as the male version of 🧜 Merperson, added in Emoji 5.0 / Unicode 10.0 (2017). It was part of the fantasy character batch that brought fairies, mages, elves, vampires, and zombies into emoji. The merperson was the aquatic entry.

The merman has a complicated cultural history. Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, was the first famous merman in Western mythology. He carried a trident and a conch shell that could calm or raise storms. But mermen predate Greek mythology: the Babylonian sea-god Ea (Enki to the Sumerians) may be the oldest recorded figure combining human and fish characteristics.

In modern pop culture, the merman is defined by two names: King Triton (Ariel's father in Disney's The Little Mermaid) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa's version), who was described by critics as a "dude-bro merman" played with gusto. The 1980s also gave us Mer-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a green-skinned villain with a fish face.

The queer connection runs deep. Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Little Mermaid (1837) as a lament after his romantic overtures were rejected by his male friend Edvard Collin. The story of a creature who changes their body to be with the person they love has resonated with the LGBTQ+ community since. Mermaids and mermen appear at Pride parades globally, are a recurring theme in RuPaul's Drag Race, and the UK's prominent trans youth charity is literally named "Mermaids". Researchers found that transgender children persistently use mermaid imagery in self-portraits as "affirmations of femininity and nascent trans pride."

🧜‍♂️ shows up in three distinct communities. First, fantasy and mythology fans: discussions about merfolk in games, books, movies, and DnD campaigns. Second, the LGBTQ+ community: mermen and mermaids as symbols of transformation, fluidity, and queer identity. Third, beach and ocean culture: tropical vibes, summer posts, and anyone who identifies more with the sea than the land.

The mermaid variant 🧜‍♀️ is used significantly more than the merman. Mermaids dominate pop culture (The Little Mermaid, Splash, Pirates of the Caribbean). Mermen are rarer, which gives 🧜‍♂️ a niche quality. When someone uses the merman specifically, they're often making a deliberate choice.

Aquaman's cultural presence gave the merman emoji a masculinity boost. Jason Momoa's portrayal transformed Aquaman from "the guy who talks to fish" (the Justice League joke) into an action hero, and James Gunn's use of mermaid emojis on social media sparked fan theories about DC's cinematic future.

The merman has a certain allure. Merfolk are traditionally depicted as beautiful and seductive in mythology (sirens lured sailors with song). In LGBTQ+ contexts, 🧜‍♂️ can carry romantic or identity-signaling energy. In straight dating contexts, it's more whimsical than flirty. Nobody is using the merman emoji to seduce anyone. They're using it to express their relationship with the ocean or their love of fantasy.

Mermen are among the oldest mythological figures in human storytelling. The Babylonian god Ea (Enki), depicted as half-human, half-fish, dates back to at least the third millennium BCE. In Greek mythology, Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, was the most famous merman: handsome from the waist up, fish-tailed below, carrying a trident and conch shell that controlled the seas. By the Roman era, "triton" became the generic term for any merman.

Irish folklore has the Coomara, a merman with green skin, slitted eyes, and a big red nose. Scandinavian legends describe mermen with black hair, long beards, and dusky skin. The common thread: mermen are either beautiful (Greek tradition) or grotesque (Northern European tradition), rarely in between.

Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (1837) changed everything. The story of a creature who transforms their body for love was written after Andersen's romantic overtures were rejected by his male friend Edvard Collin. The queer subtext, once whispered about by scholars, is now widely acknowledged. Disney's adaptation turned it into a princess story; the LGBTQ+ community reclaimed the original's meaning.

The emoji arrived in 2017 as part of the fantasy batch. Unlike profession emojis (which Google and Apple pushed for equity reasons), the fantasy characters were proposed as a set to fill emoji's mythology gap. The merperson completed a roster: fairy (air), mage (magic), elf (earth), merperson (water).

Merfolk became LGBTQ+ symbols for reasons beyond Andersen. The concept of a creature that exists between two worlds (land/sea, human/fish) resonated with people navigating between identities. Mermaids appear at Pride parades worldwide, alongside unicorns and fairies. The UK's trans youth charity is named "Mermaids". Disney's Ursula was designed after drag queen Divine. The merman emoji inherits all of this.

The base 🧜 (Merperson) was approved in Unicode 10.0 / Emoji 5.0 (June 2017). The gendered 🧜‍♂️ (Merman) is a ZWJ sequence: U+1F9DCU+1F9DC + U+200DU+200D + U+2642U+2642 + U+FE0FU+FE0F. Four code points. It supports all five Fitzpatrick skin tone modifiers. The base merperson doesn't specify gender, and its appearance varies by platform: some show it as female by default, others as gender-ambiguous.

Merfolk mythology exists across virtually every coastal culture. In Japan, the ningyo (人魚) is a fish-bodied creature whose flesh grants immortality. In West African traditions (particularly Yoruba), Mami Wata is a powerful water spirit. In Scottish folklore, selkies are seal-people who shed their skin. In Chinese mythology, merpeople could weave fabric from their tears.

The Western merman (Triton, Aquaman) is the globally dominant image thanks to Hollywood and Disney, but local variations are deeply different. The Japanese ningyo is a curse, not a romance. Mami Wata can be male or female and commands respect and fear. The emoji's trident-optional, bare-chested design encodes the Greek/Disney tradition.

The LGBTQ+ symbolism of merfolk is primarily Western. In cultures where queerness is criminalized, using mermaid/merman imagery as identity signaling carries different weight and risk.

• •Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Little Mermaid (1837) after his friend Edvard Collin rejected his romantic overtures. The story's queer subtext is now widely acknowledged by scholars.
• •The Babylonian god Ea (Enki), depicted as half-human half-fish, may be the oldest recorded merman figure (third millennium BCE). Triton, Greek mythology's famous merman, came later.
• •Disney's Ursula was designed after drag queen Divine. The connection between The Little Mermaid and queer culture runs from the original 1837 story through the 1989 Disney film to the 2023 live-action remake.
• •The UK's trans youth charity is literally named "Mermaids". Researchers found transgender children persistently draw themselves as mermaids as "affirmations of femininity and nascent trans pride."
• •Jason Momoa's Aquaman was described by critics as a "dude-bro merman" played with gusto. His portrayal transformed Aquaman from "the guy who talks to fish" into an action hero.

• •In LGBTQ+ contexts, merfolk emoji carry real identity significance. Using 🧜‍♂️ as a joke about someone's appearance or gender can be hurtful. The queer community has genuine historical attachment to mermaid/merman symbolism.
• •The merman emoji is sometimes used sarcastically ("I'm a merman 🧜‍♂️" when someone is an unusually strong swimmer or loves the ocean too much), but it also functions as sincere identity expression. Read the room.
• •Mermaids outpace mermen in usage ~5:1. Sending 🧜‍♂️ when you meant 🧜‍♀️ is a common mistake, especially on keyboards where the merperson variants are next to each other.

• •The Little Mermaid's queer legacy spans from Andersen's 1837 original (written after romantic rejection by a man) through Disney's 1989 adaptation (Ursula based on Divine) to the 2023 live-action remake starring Halle Bailey ($570M worldwide)).
• •Jason Momoa's Aquaman franchise redefined the merman in pop culture. Critics called him a "dude-bro merman." The franchise earned over $1.1B at the global box office across two films. James Gunn's mermaid emoji teasers on social media sparked fan theories about DC's future.
• •Merfolk at Pride parades are a global phenomenon alongside unicorns and fairies. NYLON wrote about the millennial obsession with mermaids and unicorns as expressions of queer identity. RuPaul's Drag Race has featured mermaid-themed episodes and challenges.

• •ZWJ sequence: U+1F9DCU+1F9DC (Merperson) + U+200DU+200D (ZWJ) + U+2642U+2642 (Male Sign) + U+FE0FU+FE0F. Four code points.
• •Skin tone: affects only the human upper body. The fish tail maintains its default color regardless of modifier.
• •Shortcodes: :merman::merman: on Slack and Discord.
• •The base U+1F9DCU+1F9DC (Merperson) doesn't specify gender. Its default appearance varies by platform: some show it female, others gender-ambiguous.
• •Part of the Unicode 10.0 fantasy batch alongside fairy (U+1F9DAU+1F9DA), mage (U+1F9D9U+1F9D9), elf (U+1F9DDU+1F9DD), genie (U+1F9DEU+1F9DE), zombie (U+1F9DFU+1F9DF), vampire (U+1F9DBU+1F9DB).

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